Monaco (AFP)
The International Athletics Federation on Friday suspended Russia's reinstatement process, banned since November 2015 due to a massive institutional doping scandal.
The decision, taken eight months after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, comes after the temporary suspension of five leaders of the Russian Athletics Federation (Rusaf), including its president Dmitry Chliakhtin, suspected of "obstructing an investigation. "aiming at the high jumper Danil Lysenko.
Rusaf officials are accused of providing false documents to allow the vice-champion of the world 2017 to escape a penalty for failing to meet his localization obligations for unannounced inspections.
In addition to the suspension of Rusaf leaders, Russia has also been pinned in recent months by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which is investigating a possible falsification of data from the Moscow laboratory - at the heart of the doping system between 2011 and 2015 - forwarded to WADA and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for their investigations.
The WADA Executive Committee is scheduled to meet on December 9th to review the ongoing proceedings against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) and to take possible sanctions, which could include exclusion from the Olympic Games. Tokyo in 2020.
The World Athletics Council also decided to freeze the process that allowed Russian athletes deemed to be irreproachable by an anti-doping panel to compete under a neutral banner and threatened the country of outright exclusion following the decisions expected from WADA and IAU surveys.
© 2019 AFP