IAAF upholds ban on Russia for doping

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The IAAF has been left frustrated by Russian back-sliding on issues critical to the country's reintegration into global track and field, a top official said yesterday.

Rune Andersen, head of the doping task force for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said he had recommended to the IAAF Council, which duly followed his advice, that it uphold its ban on Russian athletes, first imposed in 2015 over mass state-sponsored doping.

Andersen said Russia had paid out more than $3.2 million (2.8m euros) for the Task Force's work and had also committed to paying any more costs, so the "cost condition has been met".

He added "progress has been made on the second outstanding issue," that of retrieving data and samples from a Moscow laboratory at the heart of the scandal.

Those have been passed on to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and it will not be until they report back that they have everything they need that the Task Force will consider that issue resolved.

The AIU are also investigating whether Russian athletics federation (RUSAF) officials were involved in the alleged cover up of a doping offence by high jumper Danil Lysenko.

IAAF to be renamed World Athletics
World athletics' governing body, the IAAF, is to rebrand as World Athletics, it was announced yesterday. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was initially founded in 1912 as the International Amateur Athletic Federation. The body, currently presided over by Britain's two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist Sebastian Coe, took its present name in 2001 and World Athletics should be operational from October.

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