RUSSIA UNDER INVESTIGATION

‘Inconsistencies’ could jeopardise country’s Olympic hope

THE World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday gave Russia three weeks to explain “inconsistencies” in a cache of laboratory data handed over to investigators, raising the possibility of a fresh ban on the country in the build-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

Russia stands to be declared non-compliant by WADA if it fails to explain why evidence of some positive tests handed over by a whistleblower does not show up in data provided by Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory in January.

In another blow on Monday, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) maintained a ban on the Russian athletics federation pending analysis of the data.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe said after a meeting in Doha his organisation’s anti-doping taskforce had given “the strongest recommendation we’ve probably had” that Russian should remain suspended from track and field.

Though the Russian federation has been banned since November 2015, athletes from Russia have been competing for years as neutrals and 118 are due to participate in the World Athletics Championships which get underway in the Qatari capital on Friday.

If Russia challenges an eventual wider suspension by WADA the case will go to the Swissbased Court of Arbitration for Sport, whose decision will be binding on sports bodies including the International Olympic Committee.

Explaining WADA’s new concerns, the agency’s director general Olivier Niggli told AFP after an executive committee meeting in Tokyo: “Forensic experts have looked at what we got from whistleblowers, what we got from Russia and they noticed some inconsistencies.

“Then they studied the differences and this came to a situation where there are some questions that need to be asked and answered.”

WADA has previously warned that it would take the “most stringent sanctions” if any of the data was found to have been tampered with.

Russia’s Olympic chief Stanislav Pozdnyakov acknowledged the situation was “very serious.”

“We risk running into various sanctions due to reasons that we have nothing to do with,” he said in a statement.

He advised senior Russian officials to sort out the issue and “give convincing answers.”

Sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said RUSADA, the Russian antidoping agency, would cooperate with WADA to try to explain the inconsistencies in the data.

“Digital experts from both sides, who are already in touch, will see what the discrepances are about and what they are connected to. As far as we are concerned, we continue to help in any way possible.”