IAAF: 'Significant Work' Needed for Russia Reinstatement

(ATR) IAAF president Seb Coe told reporters Friday the federation will decide on allowing Russian athletes in the Rio 2016 Olympics at a meeting in May.

"There were no preordained outcomes today," Coe said following the IAAF Council in Monaco. "We wanted to hear what Rune [Andersen] and the team had to say and we were unanimously satisfied that more work needed to be done before we could ultimately make a decision."

"You should conclude that these decisions will be taken at that point," Coe said referring to the next IAAF Council meeting in May.

Postponing the decision means that Russian track and field athletes will not be allowed to compete at the IAAF Indoor World Championships set to begin March 17 in Portland, Oregon.

Russia was suspended by the IAAF in November 2015 following the WADA Independent Commission report that outlined state-sponsored doping programs within the Russian Athletics Federation. The IAAF created a five-person task force chaired by Rune Andersen to monitor Russia’s progress towards reinstatement.

Andersen says that Russia has made "significant progress" in its efforts but that Russian federation is not in the clear yet.

"The view of the task force is that there is significant work still to be done to satisfy the reinstatement conditions," Andersen said.

Andersen says the task force needs to speak with athletes and coaches who have been linked to anti-doping reports before it can make a final assessment. The task force says Russia must change its doping culture before Russian athletes can compete again in the Olympics.

"That's not an easy task and might take, as the sports minister in Russia indicated, years to do," says Andersen. "It's a big job and they're just at the beginning of this."

The IAAF Council also addressed five countries as needing "critical care" in changing anti-doping efforts.

Ethiopia, Morocco, Ukraine, Kenya and Belarus are under scrutiny by the IAAF to implement more doping tests and to comply completely with the WADA code. Coe says "there are no immediate sanctions" and the scrutiny is "just a wake-up call".

"Ethiopia and Morocco both need to implement adequate and robust testing in and out of competition," Coe said. "Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus have been put on a monitoring list for 2016 to strengthen their anti-doping regimes and make sure their journey to compliance is completed by the end of the year."

"Sanctions will only be considered if they don't comply with requirements," Coe said.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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