Russians to be barred from indoor champs

THERE would be no Russian athletes at the 2016 IAAF world indoor championships in Portland, Oregon, next March, a source with knowledge of the decision said this week.

The championships will be the first global athletics meeting the Russians will miss since the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) suspended Moscow last week amid allegations of widespread and state-sponsored doping, detailed in a World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission report.

That suspension would not be lifted before an IAAF inspection team completed their investigations and verified that the Russian athletics federation met the objectives of IAAF membership, the source said.

The indoor championships are scheduled for March 17-20, 10 days before the inspection team is scheduled to make its first report to an IAAF council meeting in Wales on March 27.

The source emphasised that Russian athletes could not compete in any international events, including cross country and track and field, until the suspension was lifted.

Russia is a major player in world athletics, having finished second to the US in the last indoor championships in Poland in 2014 and in the athletics competition at the 2012 Olympics in London.

IAAF chief Sebastian Coe said Russia needed to prove its commitment to anti-doping according to “robust” verification criteria if its track and field athletes were to return to competition.

“For the protection of all clean athletes, there cannot be any time frame for (Russia’s) return until we are assured all criteria have been fully met, and will continue to be met forever,” Coe said.

He said Russia needed to take immediate corrective and disciplinary measures against athletes involved in doping while also establishing an effective anti-doping framework.

Several countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy, have introduced laws criminalising doping among elite athletes.