Paris (AFP)
How far will Russian athletics go? Suspended since November 2015 for a large-scale doping scandal, the Athletics Federation (Rusaf) is now accused of obstructing an investigation to save the head of one of its headliners, Danil Lysenko.
This new scandal comes at the worst time for all Russian sport, again in the sights of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and under the threat of an exclusion of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will take place in eight month.
All on the eve of the Council of the International Federation (IAAF), which was still to discuss the Russian case!
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), in charge of anti-doping, hit hard Thursday, temporarily suspending five officials of the Russian Athletics Federation, including its president Dmitry Chliakhtin, its coordinator of the Anti-Doping Elena Ikonnikova, or her Executive Director Alexander Parkin, as well as Danil Lysenko and coach Evgeniy Zagorulko.
The charges are serious: falsification of documents in order to avoid a penalty to Lysenko, vice-world champion 2017 of the high jump in London, and one of the symbols of Russian athletics under neutral flag.
The Rusaf has been suspended by the IAAF since November 2015, after the revelation of a vast doping scandal, with doping cases of Russian athletes covered by the national federation.
- Three "no shows" -
Since then she has been under close surveillance. Only athletes considered to be irreproachable may line up on athletics competitions but only under neutral flag.
On 25 June 2018, IAU notified Danil Lysenko of a third breach of its localization obligations for unannounced inspections, commonly known as "no shows", within 12 months.
Lysenko, who was on the list of IAAF sanctioned athletes, was temporarily suspended on 3 August 2018, three days away from the Berlin European Championships, for which he was one of the favorites for gold.
The IAU's 15-month investigation "concluded that Rusaf officials were involved in providing false explanations and falsified documents to IAU in order to explain the" no shows "of the IAU. athlete, "stressed the instance.
Rusaf and all the defendants have until 12 December to provide answers to IAU.
"A meeting of the leaders of the Federation will be convened as soon as possible and that is when we will answer all the questions concerning my suspension and the one who will be president of the organization ad interim." reacted in the evening Dmitry Chliakhtin, in a statement of the Rusaf.
The case, initiated last year, led the head of Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), Yuri Ganous, to demand the resignation of the leaders of Rusaf. In an interview with L'Equipe on 18 September, Yuri Ganous had judged that Rusaf's "ladder of drifting" was "just crazy". "Lysenko's case is criminal," he added.
- Again targeted by WADA -
In November 2015, after the outbreak of the institutionalized doping scandal in Russian athletics, the Russian national anti-doping agency, Rusada, was also suspended by WADA.
This suspension was lifted by WADA in September 2018, but provided that it provided the electronic data from the former Moscow laboratory.
In September 2019, WADA initiated a procedure following "inconsistencies" in the data submitted in early January 2019, asking Rusada to answer a series of questions.
"I have seen the documents and questions asked by WADA and I do not see how it would be possible (for Russia) to answer (satisfactorily) these questions," said Yuri Ganous at the fifth conference. Doping in Sport, beginning of November in Katowice (Poland).
The Compliance Review Committee (CRC) of WADA met last Sunday. He will submit an "official recommendation" on possible sanctions against Russia, which will be on the agenda of the WADA Executive Committee on 9 December.
WADA, which had not been able to prevent Russia from going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games - except for athletics, suspended by the IAAF - now has a regulation that allows it to impose sporting sanctions, with a possible appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
© 2019 AFP