Russia told to clean up its act

Athletics’ governing body has voted overwhelmingly to suspend Russia from the sport for widespread, state-sponsored doping and the ban will include the 2016 Olympics unless the country can demonstrate a major change in their approach and controls.

After a three-hour teleconference on Friday, hosted by its president Sebastian Coe, the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) council voted 22-1 in favour of the sanction, with the Russian representative not able to vote.

The meeting was called to discuss Monday’s report by the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which recommended the punishment -- unprecedented for doping offences. “We will get the change we want and only then will Russian athletes return to international competition,” Coe told reporters after Friday’s call. “This is not about politics, this is about the protection of clean athletes. I cannot overstate the feeling around the conference call this evening about sending the strongest possible message that we can.” REQUIRED CHANGES Asked if Russia would be able to make the required changes in time to return for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next August, Coe said: “It is entirely up to the Russian federation. Our verification team will be tough and will want to make sure that before there is a re-introduction to the sport for their athletes and the federation those changes have taken place.”

Russia will be stripped of hosting the world race walking and world junior championships next year while the first competition to be affected by the ban is the European cross-country championships in France on Dec. 13.

The main athletics events in 2016 are the world Indoor Championships, the European athletics championships and the Olympics. Russia are one of the superpowers of the sport and finished second behind the United States in the track and field medal count at the 2012 Olympics in London.

“To regain membership to the IAAF the new federation would have to fulfil a list of criteria,” Coe said. The IAAF has previously suspended members, including South Africa during its Apartheid regime, Afghanistan, Vanuatu, Algeria and Gabon, but none of those were drugs-related.