Olive branch might just not be enough

RUSSIA, accused of “state-sponsored” doping, have said they are ready to establish a new anti-doping agency – hours before world athletics chiefs meet – with exclusion from the 2016 Olympics a potential long-term consequence for Moscow.

The recently elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Sebastian Coe will not be at the organisation’s headquarters in Monaco but will preside over a conference call of the body’s 26 members from London.

Ahead of the IAAF meeting, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said Moscow was ready to reform or “create a new anti-doping organisation” if the IAAF or the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) demanded it.

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 Wada in a report which has shaken track and field.

The 335-page report also blasted Russian officials for blackmailing athletes to cover up positive tests, as well as destroying test samples.

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 out from the Rio Olympics.

Of the 26 members on the IAAF Council, nine are European.

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

However, one leading IAAF council member, legendary Ukraine pole-vaulter Sergei Bubka, who lost out to Coe in the race for the organisation’s top job, warned that it would be wrong to punish innocent athletes for the transgressions of others.

“All those involved, officials, managers or coaches, must pay the price,” Bubka told the AIPS world sports journalists association.

“But ordinary athletes, those who have nothing to do with this matter, should not have to miss a single competition.”

The IAAF, he said, needed to live up to its responsibilities as an important player on the world sports stage but it must take it “case by case, person by person”.

On Thursday, Russia sent a formal reply to the allegations ahead of yesterday’s meeting.

Acting president of Russia’s athletics federation Vadim Zelichenok said it had produced the response “in such a way as to try to prove our innocence”.

“How many pages is it? One or 100, it’s not important,” he added.

In another development, Russia’s Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov flew into Lausanne in Switzerland on Thursday for talks with International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach.

The fallout from the Wada report’s damning conclusions reached as far up as Russian President Vladimir Putin who ordered officials to launch their own internal investigation and cooperate with international anti-doping authorities.

“We must do everything in Russia to rid ourselves of this problem,” said Putin, an avid sportsman who led Russia’s bid to host last year’s Winter Olympics and the 2018 football World Cup. However, he added: “This problem does not exist only in Russia, but if our foreign colleagues have questions, we must answer them.” — AFP