CAS Rules in Favor of IAAF in Russian Doping Cases

(ATR) The IAAF says it is "grateful" to the Court for Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after the court upheld an IAAF appeal in the doping cases of six Russian athletes.

The court sided with the IAAF, which claimed that the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) had been too "selective" in imposing bans on the athletes so that they could keep their major titles.

All six had been found guilty of doping offenses after being charged by the IAAF following abnormalities in their Athlete Biological Passport’s profile.

The result of the CAS ruling means that Sergey Kirdyapkin will be stripped of his Olympic gold medal in the 50km walk at London 2012.

Originally, he was able to keep his gold medal because RUSADA had allowed him a four month window in his ban coinciding with the London Games. The CAS ruling removes the window.

The overturning of RUSADA's "selective" bans also means Olga Kaniskina looks set to lose her silver medal in the 20km walk from the London Olympics and two others face the loss of their gold medals at the 2011 world championships.

Yulia Zaripova won the 3,000m steeplechase and Sergei Bakulin the 50km walk in Daegu, South Korea.

The IAAF said in a statement that they "will immediately proceed to the effective disqualification of results, re-rankings and reallocation of medals in all competitions under its control. With respect to the Olympic Games, the IAAF will inform the International Olympic Committee of the CAS decisions and request the disqualification of results and the reallocation of medals."

WADA investigating report of doping cover-up in Chinese swimming

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is confirming that China is being investigated after the British newspaper The Times reported a cover-up of positive drug tests of five Chinese swimmers.

WADA spokesman Ben Nichols says "These are very serious allegations concerning Chinese Swimming that warrant further examination. WADA is now fully scrutinizing the information that The Times newspaper has passed on to us so that we can determine exactly what the appropriate steps are and so that we can address this matter head on."

The Times reported that whistleblowers within China swimming approached the newspaper about the attempts to hide the positive tests and asked them to pass the information to WADA. According to The Times, the whistleblowers were unable to contact WADA directly because of state surveillance.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that China's anti-doping agency is denying any cover-up while acknowledging it has recorded six recent positive tests by Chinese swimmers.

Wrestling the latest sport tied to Russian doping scandal

Wrestling has now been dragged into Russia’s doping scandal.

United World Wrestling chief Nenad Lalovic told TASS that wrestlers from seven former Soviet republics tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug meldonium.

The Russian news agency revealed that the country’s Greco-Roman wrestlers Evgeny Saleev and Sergey Semenov had recorded positive tests.

In a statement to Around the Rings, United World Wrestling confirmed "wrestling has registered positive doping cases with meldonium as the banned substance" but declined to say how many Russian wrestlers had been caught using the drug.

"We are currently treating all doping cases in accordance with our regulations which are aligned with the WADA code," the federation said.

"Wrestlers at this time that have tested positive for banned substances have been provisionally suspended and a decision on any further suspension by a judge remains ongoing."

WADA confirmed earlier this week that more than 100 athletes worldwide have already tested positive for meldonium, a number of whom are Russian athletes.

Written by Gerard FarekandMark Bisson

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