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Elena Sokolova should be one of the rare Russian athletes admitted to the 2019 World Championships, under a neutral banner. DIRK WAEM / BELGA / AFP

The Council of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has decided to continue the suspension of the Russian Federation (RusAthletics), 23 September 2019, for the World Championships to be held in Doha. The IAAF accuses RusAthletics of not having made significant progress in the fight against doping.

Russian athletics has been banned from the nations for four years and it is not going to get better, obviously. On 23 September 2019, the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) Government (Council) once again maintained the suspension of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAthletics).

A story without end

In concrete terms, this means that no athlete will be able to defend the colors of Russia at the 2019 World Championships (27 September to 6 October). Some Russians, whose probity has been judged by investigators, will, however, be admitted under a neutral banner, as had already been the case at the 2017 London World Championships.

The IAAF, which has suffered several doping and corruption scandals since 2015, remains the only major sports institution to ban Russia. The last time this country was represented at a big athletics competition, it was during the 2015 Worlds.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has opened a new procedure

RusAthletics was removed from the 2016 Olympic Games and the threat still looms for Tokyo 2020. This Monday, a few hours before the IAAF Council meeting, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sowed doubt about the efforts of the Russian authorities to return to the right path. WADA, which revealed in 2015 the extent of institutionalized doping in Russia, said it had opened a " formal compliance procedure against Rusada (the Russian anti-doping agency) on September 17 ". She explained that she had detected differences between data provided by Rusada and those provided by other sources. "Inconsistencies" that could be the result of manipulations aimed at covering certain athletes doped (e) s.

WADA gave Rusada three weeks to explain this situation. In case of proven falsifications, the World Anti-Doping Agency could decide in favor of a sidelining of Russia for the summer Olympics 2020. And not in athletics, this time.