World Athletics puts Russia’s return on hold

WORLD Athletics announced on Thursday the provisional suspension of the process of allowing Russian athletes to return to competition after the country’s athletics federation (RusAF) failed to pay a fine for breaking doping rules.

RusAF had until July 1 to send the global body a $5 million (4.45 million euro) fine and $1.31 million in other costs following accusations it had helped 2017 world high jump silver medallist Danil Lysenko avoid a sanction for failing to comply with anti-doping measures.

On Wednesday, RusAF’s president Yevgeny Yurchenko, appointed in February, said it had been unable to send the funds due to a lack of resources linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We recognise these are difficult times, but we are very disappointed by the lack of progress made by RusAF in terms of the requirements set in March,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.

“The serious allegations of breaching the anti-doping rules resulted in a new RusAF administration and we had assurances and hoped that change was on its way.”

“RusAF is letting its athletes down badly. The terms of payment of the fine and costs were clear and unchallenged by RusAF at the time so this issue will now need to return to Council at the end of July,” he added.

Last November, World Athletics had frozen the process before allowing 10 Russian athletes to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in exchange for the fine being paid.

A month later the World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia from global sporting events, including the next two Olympics and the 2022 World Cup, accusing Moscow of falsifying data.