Moscow (AFP)

Russian high jump star Maria Lasitskene said on Wednesday that the appointment of a new Russian sports minister will "help" athletics as the country is sidelined from world sport due to widespread scandal of doping.

"I want to believe, I want to hope that these changes will help us, will have an influence on the Russian Athletics Federation because we are really in terrible shape," said the triple champion from the 27-year-old world to AFP in the wake of the ouster of Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov.

Mr. Kolobkov was replaced by Oleg Matytsin, President of the International University Sports Federation, whose appointment was welcomed by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) and the Russian Olympic Committee.

Maria Lasitskene, one of the most mobilized and toughest Russian athletes against the country's sports authorities, reiterated her attacks on the leaders of the Russian Athletics Federation, suspended since November 2015 by World Athletics (ex-IAAF) .

"It's just shameful that for so long, the leaders of the Federation have not been able to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, they have made it even worse," said the jumper, who still hopes to participate in the Games Tokyo Olympics this summer under neutral status.

Russia was excluded in December from four years of international sports competition for having falsified anti-doping data, the latest episode in a major institutional doping scandal.

As for the athletics federation, she saw her reintegration process be suspended from November 2019, her leaders being suspected of having provided false proof to the high jumper Danil Lysenko, who had failed in his localization obligations three times for unexpected checks ("no show").

The election of the new leaders of the Russian Athletics Federation will take place on February 28 and Maria Lasitskene doubts that the situation will change.

"Unfortunately today, those who would like to preside over the federation are people I do not trust. Many of them were in the team of Dmitri Chliakhtine (the resigning president, editor's note) and I do not think that it could help athletics, "she said.

© 2020 AFP