IAAF extends Russia ban over doping

Russian athletes remain suspended for the World Athletics Championships in Doha with IAAF Council announcing that there had been no change in status of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).

Rune Andersen, the independent chairman of the IAAF Taskforce, said that while some progress has been made, key issues remain outstanding that prevent the reinstatement of RusAF.

Andersen said that the Task Force has taken note of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision at its Executive Board meeting in Tokyo yesterday to open a compliance proceeding against RUSADA over inconsistencies in data supplied to WADA earlier this year.

He also said the task force noted that recent allegations that banned coaches continued to work with athletes were found to be true, putting into question the integrity of RusAF’s anti-doping efforts.

“There is a recurring problem of athletes and local athletics federations working with banned coaches which undermines the creation of any strong anti-doping culture,” Andersen said.

“It is premature to tell if the reported measures taken by RusAF will work, therefore the associated conditions for reinstatement have not been met.” Andersen also said that investigations into the LIMS data provided by the Moscow were still ongoing.

“The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has not yet confirmed that the data is authentic and untampered,” Andersen said.

Additionally, an AIU investigation is still underway into allegations that senior RusAF officials were involved in fabricating medical records in an effort to avoid an anti-doping violation for high jumper Danil Lysenko.

Russian athletes who have been granted ‘Authorised Neutral Athlete’ status by the Doping Review Board have continued to compete in international competitions. A Russian team participated in the European Games in Minsk in June 2019, and 30 athletes have been permitted to participate as authorised neutral athletes at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.