IAAF Threatens Russia with Expulsion

(ATR) World athletics governing body says it will consider expelling the Russian federation if the country fails to make "dramatic progress" in meeting conditions for its reinstatement.

Russia’s suspension, implemented in November 2015, remains in place after lengthy discussion at Tuesday’s IAAF Council meeting in Birmingham, UK. No Russian representative was present.

Rune Andersen, chair of the IAAF taskforce working towards RusAF’s reinstatement, reeled off a list of conditions that Russia had still not met at a press conference.

These include Russia’s failure to acknowledge the "institutionalized doping scheme uncovered by McLaren [the WADA investigator], which means there is no comfort it won’t be repeated".

The Norwegian also noted that Russian anti-doping body RUSADA had not been reinstated by the World Anti-Doping Agency. And he confirmed that RusAF and RUSADA had yet to provide a test distribution plan for 2018 "that shows adequate amount of testing" for the country’s athletes. The nation’s sporting authorities had not demonstrated they had "fixed" a legal issue to enforce doping bans.

Andersen said the taskforce is calling for an urgent meeting with RusAF and the ministry of sport to "press for changes without further delay".

He warned that if progress was not made by the time of the next council meeting in July "further measures should be discussed including withdrawing permission for Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at international competitions."

But he underlined the bigger punishment – possible expulsion of RusAF from IAAF membership, if its demands on Russia are not delivered.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe told reporters there was "no ambiguity about the criteria" previously agreed with the Russian athletics federation at the start of its pathway to reinstatement.

Coe said that "unless dramatic progress is made," the July council meeting would take steps to further punish Russia including "the potential for the congress to decide the ultimate sanction".

He denied the IAAF was threatening Russia, although it sounded very much like it. "That is not sitting there as a threat but because we want that situation to be resolved.

"We want that country back in the fold and the world needs to know that the athletes are in a system of confidence and trust," he said.

Asked by Around the Rings what he thought of the IOC’s decision last week to lift the Russian Olympic Committee suspension after less than a three-month ban, he said only that the IAAF would not "benchmark" its stance on Russia against Thomas Bach’s governing body.

Coe also insisted once again that the IAAF was moving on from the doping and corruption scandals that have tarnished the sport since he took over the presidency from the now-disgraced Lamine Diack in August 2015.

Coe on Defensive

The athletics chief was slammed in a report published on Monday for "misleading" a British parliamentary inquiry into doping in athletics.Today he dismissed the criticism and pointed to the IAAF’s reforms in the fight against doping, including the formation of its Athletics Integrity Unit.

"We should take stock and not sit on our laurels. There’s a lot that needs to be done. But the sport is not in tatters, it is extremely strong," he said.

The report published by the government’s digital, culture, media and sport committee questions the responses he gave to them in December 2015 when he claimed no knowledge of allegations about doping corruption in Russia before an expose by German TV channel ARD and other investigative journalists. The report claimed he ignored several warnings in a phone call, text messages and an email from former London Marathon race director David Bedford about the Russian cover-up.

Coe restated his claim that he had only forwarded the email to the IAAF's ethics committee without opening the attachments, urging reporters to believe that he didn’t spend time "poring over emails all day".

He refused to answer any questions about cycling’s escalating scandal, embroiling 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, Britain’s most decorated Olympian. The Combating Doping in Sport report accused Wiggins and Team Sky of crossing an "ethical line" by using therapeutic use exemption (TUE) drugs to enhance performance in cycling races, claims they strongly deny.

Outgoing IAAF chief executive Olivier Gers, who announced his resignation on Monday, didn’t elaborate on the reasons for his departure after just 18 months in the role. "This was about the commercial framework that pre-exists and that limits what I can do and I felt it best for the IAAF to move on and grow," he told reporters.

Other Decisions

The IAAF Council agreed to revise competition regulations concerning athletes wth hyperandrogenism, those who have high levels of natural testosterone. The aim is to introduce the regulations on Nov. 1.

On transfers of allegiance, a set of principles was decided. There will be a minimum three-year waiting period for athletes to transfer from one country to another. Athletes can only switch countries once in their career, with no transfers allowed before age 20.

In other news, Canadian race walker Iñaki Gomez was announced as new chair of the IAAF Athletes Commission. Valerie Adams of New Zealand was chosen as deputy chair.

Reported by Mark Bissonin Birmingham, UK

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