Russia To Miss World Championships As IAAF Extends Ban

[caption id="attachment_16392" align="alignnone" width="650"]Rune Anderson[/caption]

Russia will miss this summer’s World Athletics Championships in London after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) taskforce on Monday extended the country’s doping ban till November.

Rune Anderson, who chairs the taskforce, set up to oversee Russia’s reintegration into international athletics, told reporters that he did not expect the country to be re-admitted before November, because “there have been some negative developments since the council’s meeting in December”.

The World Championships will be stage in London between 4 -13 August, 2017.

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The decision to extend Russia’s suspension came at an IAAF Council meeting in Monaco on Monday.

The Taskforce also produced recommendations detailing a roadmap to reinstatement, saying that only when certain demands are met can Russian Athletic Federation (RusAF) return to IAAF membership.

“If everything goes in accordance with the plan, there will be a full reinstatement by November 2017,” Anderson said.

The taskforce recommended that RusAF “be required to supply an official comment in respect to each application, providing any relevant information it holds, and specifically advising whether it agrees that the athlete applicant meets all of the criteria to be granted neutral athlete status.”

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The Russian Athletic Federation was banned from the IAAF in November 2015 after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) probe exposed state-sponsored doping on a massive scale.

The ban had already been extended in March and then June 2016, preventing Russia’s athletes from competing at the Rio Olympics.

A second report by a Canadian investigator, Professor Richard McLaren, last year, said that Russia had hijacked international sport over a five-year period and that more than 1,000 Russian competitors in 30 sports were involved in an “institutional conspiracy” to cover up positive tests.

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