Russia Faces Next World Athletics Deadline

(ATR) The Russian Athletics Federation commission tasked with restoring RusAF into the good graces of World Athletics has yet to decide on its next meeting date ahead of an August 31 deadline.

According to TASS, the meeting was originally set for August 14 and then tentatively postponed to August 18. Commission members last week sent their comments on the draft document. A single draft plan incorporating all the material is currently being worked on.

The commission must present a draft plan "of suitable scope and depth" to World Athletics by the end of the month as one of the conditions to be met to keep Russia from being expelled from the governing body of athletics.

RusAF would then have until September 30 to make any changes to the plan requested by the World Athletics Taskforce on Russia.

The plan must then be "brought into effect and satisfactory progress achieved" as reported by the Taskforce to the World Athletics Council in its subsequent meetings.

If any of those conditions is not met, then RusAF would "immediately and automatically" face expulsion. A special Congress would be convened as soon as possible to consider and vote on the proposal to expel RusAF.

The first condition, the payment of $6.3 million in overdue fines and other costs related to various anti-doping violations, was met on August 12 when the Russian government made the payment ahead of the August 15 deadline. The money had been due on July 1.

Despite the payment, Russian athletes still cannot participate in any 2020 competitions. They will be allowed to compete as Authorized Neutral Athletes (ANA) only after the draft plan has been approved by the Taskforce.

RusAF has been suspended by World Athletics since 2015 over widespread doping but has been in even hotter water since November, when RusAF’s then-president Dmitry Shlyakhtin was among seven officials and representatives charged with using forged documents and giving false explanations in an anti-doping investigation of Russian athlete Danil Lysenko.

It wasn't until March 2 that RusAF, under a new president, admitted wrongdoing in the case and apologized for covering it up. World Athletics instituted the new set of criteria for reinstatement 10 days later.

WADA ‘Very Concerned’ With RUSADA

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is keeping an eye on developments regarding the future of Russian Anti-Doping Agency director general Yuri Ganus.

RUSADA has scheduled a general meeting on August 28 to consider the dismissal of Ganus. The organization’s supervisory board has recommended that Ganus be fired for serious financial and economic violations in 2018 and 2019.

Ganus, who has led RUSADA since August 2017, denies the allegations and says they are part of a campaign to discredit him.

"We continue to monitor the situation closely and in the coming days we will discuss possible steps with our independent compliance committee," WADA told TASS.

WADA in December imposed sanctions on Russia for manipulating and falsifying doping data from RUSADA’s Moscow laboratory. An appeal by Russia to the Court of Arbitration for Sport is scheduled to be heard this November.

RUSADA is appealing penalties that include a four-year ban on Russian athletes participating under their flag at major international competitions, including the next two Olympics.

Russian athletes who can prove to WADA’s satisfaction that they are clean will be eligible to compete as independent athletes under a neutral flag as was the case at PyeongChang 2018.

RUSADA was previously suspended for what has been determined as a vast state-supported doping system revealed in a 2015 WADA-commissioned report. Russia was reinstated by WADA in September 2018 with one of the conditions being full disclosure of doping data from the Moscow lab.

Russia Field Hockey Under Baseball Federation

The Russian Baseball Federation will also be responsible for field hockey in the country for the next six months.

The Russian Field Hockey Federation (FHTR) was suspended by the country’s sports ministry on Tuesday. The federation’s president Nikolay Aleksandrov was arrested in December on embezzlement charges tied to his position as head of Russian construction company Metrostoy. TASS reports he is currently under house arrest after being charged in a second criminal case.

The FHTR held early presidential elections in February following Aleksandrov’s initial arrest. But TASS reports the Russian Olympic Committee ruled the results invalid since Aleksandrov did not submit his resignation and his term of office had not expired.

Written by Gerard Farek

For general comments or questions,click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.