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Russia provisionally suspended from athletics following IAAF vote

Expert
13th November, 2015
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Former WADA chief Dick Pound was the only official to call for Russia's immediate ban. (Photo: AFP)
Expert
13th November, 2015
0

Russia has been provisionally suspended from all international athletics competitions including the Olympics after an International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) vote on Saturday.

No Russian athletes or Russian athlete support personnel will be able to participate in any international athletics events with the IAAF choosing to suspend the Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) from its members.

IAAF council members put the issue to a vote and the final result was 22-1 in favour of the provisional suspension.

The move comes after a recent report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) alleged that Russia’s athletics program had engaged in “state-sponsored doping”.

The WADA report recommends that Russia face a full ban from all international athletics competitions including the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics.

“Today we have been dealing with the failure of ARAF and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time. But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world,” said IAAF president Sebastian Coe.

“This has been a shameful wake up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated. To this end, the IAAF, WADA, the member federations and athletes need to look closely at ourselves, our cultures and our processes to identify where failures exist and be tough in our determination to fix them and rebuild trust in our sport. There can be no more important focus for our sport.”

In addition to its athletes being suspended from international competition, Russia has now lost the right to host the 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships and 2016 World Junior Championships.

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The events will now either be relocated to a new country, or cancelled.

“The message could not be stronger. This is a wake-up call,” said Coe.

“It is entirely up to Russia to make changes.”

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