Russian Athletics Shakeup

(ATR) Working group set up by Russian Olympic Committee takes over; WADA asks CAS to hold RUSADA's appeal in public.

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(ATR) A working group set up by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) takes over the running of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).

The entire RusAF board resigned on Monday as part of a shakeup brought on by the board’s failure to get the country reinstated by World Athletics, the governing body of the sport.

The federation has been suspended since 2015 over widespread doping but has been in even hotter water since November, when RusAF’s then-president was among seven officials and representatives charged with using forged documents and giving false explanations in an anti-doping investigation of Russian athlete Danil Lysenko.

Last week, World Athletics threatened RusAF with expulsion if the latter continues to deny the charges and refuses to express contrition for them.

World Athletics offered to take expulsion off the board if RusAF and its officials admit wrongdoing. It also said it would work on allowing Russian athletes to participate at Tokyo 2020 through "authorized neutral athlete" status if RusAF comes clean.

Last Friday, the Russian sports ministry suspended RusAf’s official state recognition.

"The crisis in Russian athletics has been going on for five years and it is obvious to everyone that it has dragged on," Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin said at the beginning of the meeting on Monday.

"Our common goal is to quickly normalize collaboration with World Athletics to restore membership. The immediate tasks are to take the necessary additional measures aimed at combating doping, and to save our athletes the opportunity to speak at international competitions."

The ROC working group is in charge of holding new elections for RusAF on February 28.

WADA Wants Public Hearing

The World Anti-Doping Agency wants the appeal hearing brought by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to be held in public.

WADA submitted the request to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday. Russian officials appealed to CAS after WADA in December imposed sanctions on Russia for manipulating and falsifying doping data from RUSADA’s Moscow laboratory.

"WADA’s investigations on Russia, and this latest case of non-compliance, have generated huge interest around the world. It is WADA’s view – and that of many of our stakeholders – that this dispute at CAS should be held in a public forum to ensure that everybody understands the process and hears the arguments," WADA director general Olivier Niggli said in a statement.

RUSADA is appealing penalties that include a four-year ban on Russian athletes participating under their flag at major international competitions, including the next two Olympics.

In addition, WADA barred Russian government and sports officials from attending these events. During the four year period, Russia would not be allowed to bid for major sporting events including the 2032 Olympics. Russia would be stripped of any hosting duties that have already been awarded, unless doing so is "legally or practically impossible".

Russia athletes who can prove to WADA’s satisfaction that they are clean will be eligible to compete as independent athletes under a neutral flag as was the case at PyeongChang 2018.

RUSADA was previously suspended for what has been determined as a vast state-supported doping system revealed in a 2015 WADA-commissioned report. Russia was reinstated by WADA in September 2018 with one of the conditions being full disclosure of doping data from the Moscow lab.

Written by Gerard Farek

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