Russia faces isolation as IAAF to decide it’s fate

CORNERED Nation willing to establish new order and appoint foreign specialist

Russia, accused of “statesponsored” doping, said Friday it was ready to establish a new anti-doping agency hours before world athletics chiefs were to meet to take action which could eventually lead to Russian athletes being excluded from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Sebastian Coe, the recently-elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), will not be at the organisation’s headquarters in Monaco but will preside from London over a conference call of the body’s 27 elected members late on Friday night (IST).

Russian Mikhail Butov, an IAAF council member and secretary general of the Russian Athletics Federation will “present the ARAF position” before being “excluded from the remainder of the debate and voting”, the IAAF said in a statement.

A simple majority is all that will be needed to confirm a suspension for Russia who were accused of widespread doping by an independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency( WADA) in a report which has shaken track and field, one of the Olympic Games’ flagship attractions.

Awaiting the verdict, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said before the IAAF meeting that Moscow was ready to reform or “create a new anti-doping organisation” if the IAAF or WADA demanded it.

Mutko also broached the idea of appointing a “foreign specialist” as head of the doping laboratory, a move towards openness never before seen in Russian sport. Mutko said Russia was ready to sack senior sports officials and shake up its system of anti-doping checks in order to convince world athletics’ governing body not to bar Russian athletes from the next Olympics,.

Mutko unveiled concessions he said would be on the table, including sacking the leaders of the national athletics body, creating a new Russian anti-doping agency, and possibly bringing criminal charges against people involved in doping.

“EUROPE WILL SUPPORT SEBASTIAN COE. WE HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE IN HIM. WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE,” SVEIN ARNE HANSEN, THE PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN ATHLETICS, SAID.

“He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) instructed us to do everything ... to once again analyse and study the facts and if necessary to create a new system that has the confidence of the international community,” Mutko said. He said he had removed the head of a Moscow anti-doping laboratory because he had lost the confidence of the World Antidoping Agency (WADA). And he said he would consult with WADA when choosing a new boss for the laboratory.

But Mutko also sounded a defiant note, saying Russia should not be singled out for special treatment when other countries were performing worse when it came to stamping out performanceenhancing drugs.

And it was not clear, he complained, why WADA had decided Russia was suddenly not compliant with its rules after years of saying it was doing well.

“We have done work on antidoping that no other country has been able to do,” Mutko told a news conference.

“We have invested colossal resources in fighting against this.”

Although Russian officials are expected to offer an olive branch by admitting to some cases of cheating, the IAAF is under huge pressure to take strong action less than a year from the Rio Olympics.

“Europe will support Sebastian Coe. We have full confidence in him. We are all on the same page,” Svein Arne Hansen, the president of European Athletics, said.

However, one leading IAAF council member, former Ukraine pole-vaulter Sergei Bubka, warned that it would be wrong to punish innocent athletes.