Russia may not be lining up for any international athletics competition including the 2016 Olympics in the nearest future.
This is consequent upon the decision of the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) to suspend the country from all athletics competition over widespread, state-sponsored doping.
After a three-hour teleconference on Friday, hosted by its president Sebastian Coe, the IAAF council voted 22-1 in favour of the sanction, with the Russian representative not able to vote.
The meeting was called to discuss Monday’s report by the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which recommended the punishment, described as unprecedented for doping offences.
The report alleged ‘systemic’ collusion between Russian athletes and both the country’s federation and anti-doping authorities and a ‘deeply-rooted culture of cheating’ that enabled athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs without fear of being tested.
The report recommended suspending the Russian federation until a new framework was in place.
“We will get the change we want and only then will Russian athletes return to international competition,” Coe told journalists after Friday’s call.
According to him, “This is not about politics; this is about the protection of clean athletes. This has been a shameful wake-up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated.”
Speaking further Coe said: “But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world.”
Asked if Russia would be able to make the required changes in time to return for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next August, Coe said: “It is entirely up to the Russian federation. Our verification team will be tough and will want to make sure that before there is a re-introduction to the sport for their athletes and the federation those changes have taken place.”
By this decision, Russia would lose the right of hosting the world race walking and world junior championships next year while the first competition to be affected by the ban is the European cross-country championships in France on December 13.
The main athletics events in 2016 are the world Indoor Championships, the European athletics championships and the Olympics.
In the past, IAAF had suspended members, including South Africa during its Apartheid regime, Afghanistan, Vanuatu, Algeria and Gabon, but none of those were drugs-related.
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