Moscow (AFP)
Russia's top jumping champion Maria Lasitskene on Tuesday criticized sports bodies in her country, implicated in new suspicions of doping, saying they do not want to miss the Tokyo Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday gave Russia three weeks to explain "inconsistencies" in the electronic data from the controls of the former Moscow anti-doping laboratory, raising the specter of a possible exclusion of the 2020 Olympics .
A double world champion in 2015 and 2017, Maria Lasitskene, 26, is one of the few Russian athletes currently allowed to compete under a neutral banner, while the others have been excluded from international athletics competitions since 2015, following a vast doping scandal.
Already deprived of the 2016 Games in Rio, she said on her Instagram account to have "no certainty" about the presence of Russians in Tokyo, while calling on her compatriots to "defend their right to participate in the Olympics".
"I do not intend to miss the Olympics for the second time in a row because of some strange people who do not know how to do their job honestly," she added, "tagging" the Russian Federation Athletics (RusAf) and the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada).
In June, Maria Lasitskene had already attacked the Russian authorities for their repeated promises to reform the anti-doping system.
"I hope that people involved in this endless shame will finally have the courage to leave," she said, also on Instagram, saying "not only the direction, but all those active coaches who are still convinced that without doping, it's impossible to win. "
WADA asks Russia for explanations following the finding of differences between the evidence of doping provided by a whistleblower and data from the Moscow laboratory, provided by Russia last January.
The case seeks to determine whether Moscow has erased data in an attempt to shelter athletes from disciplinary prosecution.
Monday, the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has decided to renew the suspension of the Russian Federation, four days before the start of the World Cup in Doha (Qatar), to which 118 athletes from Russia must participate under neutral flag.
© 2019 AFP