"Anti-crisis" Head of Russia Athletics Elected

(ATR) Dmitry Shlyakhtin has months to return the crisis-hit Russian athletics federation to the international fold or the country’s track and field athletes will miss Rio 2016.

Backed by Russia's sports minister Vitaly Mutko, Shlyakhtin was unanimously elected to head All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) Saturday after two rivals, including IAAF Council member Mikhail Butov, withdrew their candidacies and a fourth failed to get a single vote.

He replaces former Russian athletics boss Valentin Balakhnichev, who was handed a lifetime ban by the IAAF ethics panel earlier in January after allegations emerged that he was involved in the cover-up of Russian doping violations.

"In this difficult period for Russian athletics, my task is simple, to return the federation to the international level, to reinstate the trust of IAAF and WADA, to give our athletes the opportunity to compete in international events," Shlyakhtin was quoted by AFP.

"We must solve all of these problems quickly," said the minister of sports for the Samara region. Mutko is hoping the IAAF can readmit ARAF in March before the World Indoor Championships.

Russia was banned from international competition in November after revelations of state-sponsored doping in the first report by the WADA Independent Commission headed by Richard Pound.Shlyakhtin rated Russia’s chances of its track and field athletes being allowed to compete at the Rio Games atonly 50-50.

"I think that currently we have an even chance of competing at the Olympics," AFP quoted Shlyakhtin as saying according to Sport-Express daily.

"We're pressed for time as the IAAF expects us to take hard and drastic measures as soon as possible. In March we must report to the IAAF council what we have done. We need to convince them that we're making revolutionary changes in Russia's athletics.

"Of course there will be doubts about our capability to change the existing practices in our athletics within just several weeks," he added.

Shlyakhtin will serve as interim federation chief with the objective of ensuring Russia achieves compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency code and is readmitted to the IAAF membership. New elections are scheduled in the autumn.

ARAF also reportedly changed its statutes to include more anti-doping measures. But details were not published.

After the election, Shlyakhtin chaired a meeting of ARAF’s ruling body which backed Gennady Aleshin to continue as chair of the coordination committee collaborating with WADA and the IAAF in attempts to readmit Russia.

Rune Andresen, who heads the IAAF Taskforce charged with overseeing Russia’s anti-doping revamp, said: "We look forward to working with the new chairperson and council of ARAF."

"The joint commitment of ARAF and ICC to the Reinstatement Conditions and Verification Criteria is central to moving this process forward," he added.

The next inspection of Russia’s progress towards reinstatement takes place with an IAAF task force visit to Moscow later this month.

IAAF Council official Butov announced he was dropping his candidacy of the Russia athletics presidency in a letter to colleagues, which is published on the federation’s website.

"As general secretary I am spending every hour of every day working closely with the IAAF Council, European Athletics, the anti-doping and Russian sports authorities, IAAF taskforce and Interim Coordination Committee of the Russian Olympic Committee," he said.

"I take these tasks very seriously. After a lot of thought and soul searching I have decided to withdraw my candidacy for the presidency so I can put all my energies into being successful in these tasks and ensuring our athletes wear Russian vests in the Rio Olympics," Butov added.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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