Russian athletics board quits amid doping stalemate
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It is WADA’S view that this dispute at CAS should be held in a public forum to ensure everybody understands the process and hears the arguments. OLIVIER NIGGLI, WADA DG
MOSCOW: The entire board of Russia’s athletics federation has resigned as the government attempts to find a way out of the country’s deepening doping crisis before the Olympic Games.
The federation (RUSAF) and the Russian sports ministry announced late Monday that the board was handing over its powers to a working group within the Russian Olympic Committee as all of its members resign.
The decision has been made “as RUSAF activities have not led to the reinstatement of the federation in World Athletics”, and to “ensure participation of clean Russian athletes in international and Russian competition”, the joint statement said.
“It’s clear that the crisis in Russian athletics has gone on for five years and it has gone on too long,” sports minister Oleg Matytsin, who was appointed last month, was quoted as saying.
Russia has been suspended since 2015 over a doping scandal and was fighting for readmission to the global athletics body. But the readmission process was suspended last year as Russia was accused of obstructing a probe into high jumper Danil Lysenko.
World Athletics also stopped reviewing which Russians can compete as neutrals with less than six months to go before Tokyo 2020.
Both RUSAF and the former sports minister denied any wrongdoing. Frustration with RUSAF reached boiling point after the Athletics Integrity Union last week accused Russia of serious violations and recommended “severest possible consequence” but the federation once again protested total innocence.
Under new minister Matytsin, Russia has to provide World Athletics with an answer on the Lysenko probe by February 10, TASS agency reported.
On Tuesday a commission of athletes in RUSAF, including world champions high jumper Maria Lasitskene and hurdler Sergei Shubenkov, said disbanding the board was “the only right decision and crucial to return Russian athletics into the global sports community”.
Time is running out for Russia’s athletes, who risk missing their second Olympic Games since 2016.
PUBLIC HEARING
MONTREAL : The World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) said it has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for a public hearing on its case for Russia’s exclusion from international sporting competitions. At stake in the hearing will be the fate of Russian athletes hoping to compete in such events as this year’s Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and 2022 football World Cup. WADA director-general Olivier Niggli said his group made the formal request for a public forum to resolve the dispute would ensure the world hears the case from both sides and understands how punishment, if any, is administered.
“WADA’S investigations on Russia, and this latest case of noncompliance, have generated huge interest around the world,” Niggli said on Monday.
“It is WADA’S view—and that of many of our stakeholders— that this dispute at CAS should be held in a public forum to ensure that everybody understands the process and hears the arguments.” WADA sent its case against the Russian Anti-doping Agency (RUSADA) to CAS, the world’s highest sport court, last month.
It will be a CAS panel that must decide whether to confirm the four-year ban WADA imposed on Russia last month after considering Russia’s case against the epic sanction. In December, WADA imposed a four-year ban on Russia over what it considers a statesponsored doping scheme—prohibiting Russia from participating in such events as this year’s Tokyo Olympics.