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London 2012 high jump champion Ukhov among 12 Russians banned

Ban

London, Feb. 1, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) London 2012 Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov is among 12 Russian track and field athletes to be handed doping bans by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

CAS was acting for the IAAF in the absence of the banned Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF).

Ukhov and Svetlana Shkolina, who won high jump bronze in 2012 and gold at the 2013 world championships, were given four-year bans on Friday.

Their bans starts from Feb. 1 2019 and aee retrospectively disqualified, meaning they will be stripped of their medals.

American Erik Kynard is expected to be promoted to gold in the 2012 Olympic men’s event while compatriot Brigetta Barrett, who took silver in London, is in line to be promoted to world champion after finishing second in Moscow.

Double world champion and former world record holder hammer thrower Tatyana Lysenko was given an eight-year ban for a second offence, as was fellow hammer thrower Gulfiya Agafonova.

CAS said the 12 athletes “participated in and/or benefited from anabolic steroid doping programs and benefited from specific protective methods”.

The athletes can appeal their cases to a separate division of CAS, and Russian officials said they were awaiting CAS’s full decisions in the cases before deciding on any action.

“So far, the decision has been made by the first instance authority which, as far as I know, made it on the basis of (Russian whistle blower Grigory) Rodchenkov’s testimony.

“Now we need to wait for the substantive part (of the court’s decision), after which we will think what to do,” Russian athletics chief Dmitry Shlyakhtin told TASS news agency.

The decisions were the first case of CAS issuing disciplinary procedures since it replaced the RUSAF in hearing cases after its suspension by the IAAF which remains in force.

The cases are based mainly on evidence gathered in an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report carried out by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren and the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU).
The AIU was set up in 2017 to act independently from the IAAF.

“Today’s CAS rulings confirm that the evidence underlying the McLaren Reports is reliable and is capable of establishing Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs),” AIU head Brett Clothier said in a statement.

He also said CAS’s decision established that the violations were committed as part of a centralised doping scheme.

“It needs to be noted that some of these cases were fought solely on the basis of the McLaren evidence, while others were combined with analytical evidence gathered through re-testing.

“It is very encouraging for us and gives us the possibility to pursue more cases in the future.”

WADA also praised the decisions.

“This should serve to reassure athletes that a lot of work is being conducted behind the scenes by various organizations that are committed to ensure that justice is rendered,” WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said in a statement.

“It reinforces the importance of ensuring that due process is followed and that evidence is carefully presented.

“This creates an important precedent that will be used in future cases.”

The bans are the latest in a long line handed down to Russians across a range of sports since widespread and organised doping was uncovered.

Russian authorities have denied that it was “state-sponsored” but have accepted that many senior officials were involved in providing the illegal products.

It also accepted the officials might have been interfering with anti-doping procedures and covering up positive tests.

WADA last month finally gained access to data held in a Moscow laboratory, the last condition for making Russia’s anti-doping agency compliant.

The access is expected to produce more retrospective positive tests.

“The data is crucial to build strong cases against cheats and exonerate other athletes suspected of having participated in widespread doping in Russia,” Clothier said.

The banned athletes are:

Tatyana Firova (400m) – four-year ban from June 9 2016.

Svetlana Shkolina (high jump) – four-year ban from Feb. 1 2019.

Ivan Ukhov (high jump) – four-year ban from Feb. 1 2019.

Lyukman Adams (triple jump) – four-year ban from Jan. 31 2019.

Anna Bulgakova (hammer throw) – four-year ban from March 29 2017.

Gulfiya Agafonova-Khanafeeva (hammer throw) – eight-year ban from Jan. 6 2017.

Tatyana Lysenko Beloborodva (hammer throw) – eight-year ban from July 2 2016.

Ivan Yushkov (shot put) – four-year ban from July 2 2016.

Mariya Bespalova (hammer throw) – already suspended since 26 October 2015.

Vera Ganeeva (discus) – two-year ban from July 2 2018.

Yekaterina Galitskaia (100m hurdles) – four-year ban from Feb. 1 2019.

Yuliya Kondakova (100m hurdles) – four-year ban from Feb. 1 2019. (Reuters/NAN)

KIA/MZA

 

Sport

WADA “bitterly disappointed” at Russia’s failure to meet deadline

Disappointment

Moscow, Jan. 1, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) The World Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday said that Russian authorities had failed to provide access to laboratory doping data by WADA’s year-end deadline.

It also said and that as a result it will consider sanctions against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

RUSADA was stripped of its accreditation in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics.

But it was conditionally – and controversially – reinstated in September.

Its failure to meet the deadline, however, raises the prospect of Russia being banned from a second consecutive Olympics and remaining shut out of international athletics.

“I am bitterly disappointed that data extraction from the former Moscow Laboratory has not been completed by the date agreed by WADA’s (Executive Committee) in September 2018,” said WADA President Craig Reedie.

“Since then, WADA has been working diligently with the Russian authorities to meet the deadline, which was clearly in the best interest of clean sport.

“The process agreed by WADA’s ExCo in September will now be initiated.”

The Compliance Review Committee (CRC) will meet in Jan. 14-15 to review the situation and make a recommendation to WADA’s Executive Committee on how to proceed.

If the CRC recommends declaring RUSADA non-compliant and the ExCo agrees with it, the Russian agency will have the right to challenge that assertion to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The court has the jurisdiction to hear the case and take the final decision.

WADA said it had written to Russia’s Minister of Sport, Pavel Kolobkov, and the Director General of RUSADA, Yury Ganus, to officially notify them of the situation.

“The situation is a total joke and an embarrassment for WADA and the global anti-doping system,” Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, said on Tuesday.

“In September, WADA secretly moved the goal posts and reinstated Russia against the wishes of athletes, governments and the public,” he said.

“In doing this, WADA guaranteed Russia would turn over the evidence of its state-supported doping scheme by today.

“No one is surprised this deadline was ignored, and it’s time for WADA to stop being played by the Russians and immediately declare them non-compliant for failing yet again to meet the deadline.” (Reuters/NAN)

KIA/ABI

Sport

Doping Scandal: Russia making slow progress towards reinstatement, WADA says

Anti-doping
Lausanne (Switzerland), March 21, 2018 (Reuters/NAN) Craig Reedie, the head of the world anti-doping agency (WADA), complained on Wednesday of slow progress by Russian authorities towards making the country’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) compliant with international standards.

WADA president Reedie told a conference that he was “encouraged by the significant progress” made by RUSADA but added it was still taking too long.

“We want to welcome an independent and efficient RUSADA back in from the cold… it’s just a pity it is taking so long for Russian authorities to make it happen,” he said.

Reedie said the slow progress was “despite a significant amount of work being carried out by WADA to persuade the Russian authorities to recognise and accept as true the systemic doping scheme as revealed by the McLaren report”.

There was no immediate comment to Reedie’s remarks by Russia which has repeatedly denied systemic doping.

RUSADA was declared non-compliant in 2015 after a report commissioned by WADA found widespread doping in the country’s athletics.

Since then, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and WADA have launched a string of investigations to look into the issue which ballooned into the biggest doping scandal in years.

The scandal is said to have engulfed many sports and has so far involved more than 1,000 athletes.

After escaping a blanket ban from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, Russia was barred from last month’s Winter Games at Pyeongchang in South Korea.

However, more than 100 of the country’s athletes were permitted to compete as neutrals.

“The big losers are Russia’s own athletes… Future participation of Russian athletes at major sporting events will continue to be put in doubt,” said Reedie.

“If WADA cannot declare that Russia has a compliant national anti-doping agency, then the rest of the world will not be convinced that any meaningful change has taken place.

“The suspicion and doubt will continue,” he stated.(Reuters/NAN)
KIA/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)