Paris (AFP)
Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko received a four-year suspension after confirmation by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of the charges against him by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) which accuses him multiple anti-doping rule violations, the IAU announced on Monday.
Lysenko (24), vice-world champion in 2017 and world indoor champion in 2018, was sanctioned with a two-year suspension for "failing to meet his whereabouts" for unannounced doping controls and a four-year suspension for "forgery".
The sanction began retroactively on August 3, 2018, the date since which the athlete has been provisionally suspended.
The Russian, however, saw this sanction reduced by two years "because of the substantial assistance that the athlete provided to the IAU to bring charges against former officials of the Rusaf (Russian Athletics Federation, editor's note) , Dmitri Chliakhtine and Artur Karamyan ", added IAU.
Lysenko will therefore be able to return to competition from August 3, 2022, which will cause him to miss the Tokyo Olympic Games (July 23-August 8, 2021) and the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene (United States).
The IAU announcement is the culmination of a long procedure that began in November 2019 against Danil Lysenko, his trainer, the Russian Athletics Federation (Rusaf) and several senior Rusaf officials, including Chliakhtin and Karamyan.
Rusaf was convicted of helping Lysenko provide false documents to justify a breach of his whereabouts obligations for doping controls.
This procedure had further aggravated relations between the International Athletics Federation and Russia, suspended since November 2015 for having established an institutionalized doping system.
World Athletics had frozen in November 2019 the process for handpicked athletes to participate in competitions outside Russia under a neutral banner.
The International Federation finally decided in March to relaunch this process, also authorizing a maximum of ten Russian athletes to take part in major international competitions, including the Tokyo Olympics.
This decision followed the presentation by the Russian Federation of "a reintegration plan", drawn up with the assistance of three independent experts.
This roadmap provides in particular for the recognition of past reprehensible acts, the creation of an anti-doping department independent of Rusaf, the financing of a greater number of screening tests, sanctions against Russian regions experiencing doping problems, encouragement for whistleblowers and greater involvement of athletes in the management of their discipline.
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