Federations Address Russian Athletes Eligibility

(ATR) The International Shooting Sport Federation will allow its Russian athletes to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics following a unanimous vote by its executive committee.

The ISSF says the 18 Russian shooters who were entered by the Russian Olympic Committee have not previously tested positive for doping and were not included in the recently published McLaren report. The McLaren report identified three samples from Russian shooters who had tested positive for doping in the past.

The federation will now send its evidence and relevant documents over to the IOC for final approval.

With Russian president Vladimir Putin as honorary president of the International Judo Federation, there was little doubt IJF chief Marius Vizer would clear the country’s judokas for Rio, according to the IOC’s eligibility rules.

All 11 Russians, seven male and four female, will go to Rio, Vizer confirmed to Reuters, insisting they had been drug tested many times at home and abroad since last September.

Modern Pentathlon has barred two Russians from the Rio Games.

The federation’s executive board said that as Maksim Kustov and Ilia Frolov "were responsible for samples labelled as ‘Disappearing Positive Methodology’", they would miss Rio.

"According to the McLaren report, both athletes tested positive for trenbolone, methenolone and oxandrolone when the samples were analyzed in a Moscow laboratory in August 2014 but the findings were not reported as such," the federation said.

The other three athletes on the Russian team were deemed eligible to compete in Rio based on the IOC’s eligibility rules set out on Sunday.

The World Sailing board of directors has approved six Russian athletes that will be allowed to compete at Rio while barring one athlete from the competition.

Pavel Sozykin is the only Russian sailor not admitted by World Sailing. Sozykin’s name was implicated in the McLaren report and because he competes in a two-person race classification, the ROC will have the opportunity to nominate another athlete to take his place.

"There is, however, no room in sailing for athletes who seek to gain an unfair advantage through the use of banned substances or who attempt to manipulate or subvert the anti-doping system," said World Sailing chief executive Andy Hunt.

The International Weightlifting Federation will decide the fate of eight Russian weightlifters with the possibility of a ban of the entire team.

The federation announced on June 22 that Russia would lose two quota places for the Rio Games because of doping violations. IWF stated that if the testing of 'B' samples proved to confirm that if any country had three or more violations in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic re-testing program, the country would be suspended from international competition for one year, thus being excluded from Rio alongside the already suspended Bulgaria.

IWF clarified that after re-testing 'A' samples from 2008 and 2012 that the three countries thereby scheduledfor suspension were Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus. Russia moved to appeal their decision as well in the Court of Arbitration for Sport on July 6.

Maria Verchenova is the lone Russian golfer entered for Rio, having qualified among 60 players based on the International Golf Federation world rankings.

The International Golf Federation tells Around the Rings it is reviewing and evaluation criteria set forth by the IOC on Sunday in regards to Verchenova - who is based in Moscow - but there is no exact timeframe for a decision.

In an interview with ATR at the Ladies European Tour Event in Pilsen, Czech Republic last month, Verchenova offered her opinion on doping.

"I think the main thing is its a political issue - they've been looking after the Russian athletes a lot and making sure they are not on the doping list," Verchenova said.

"To be honest, I can't even understand how cyclists and runners can not be on doping because it is unbelievably hard to do such an amount of distance, like in the Tour de France.

"It is a shame, because our team is getting smaller and smaller - I really hope we have a few athletes on the team that can get some medals."

The Rio 2016 Games begin Aug. 5 and conclude Aug. 21.

Written by Kevin Nutley, Mark Bisson and Brian Pinelli

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