Russia set to miss World Championships as ban continues

MONACO — Russian track and field athletes look certain to miss out on this year’s World Championships after an IAAF task force recommended on Monday that the country’s ban should run until November. Rune Anderson, head of the task force of the sport’s world ruling body, told reporters he did not expect Russia to be re-admitted to the sport before November, meaning its athletes will not be able to take part in the global showpiece event in London in August. Russia’s Athletics Federation (RUSAF) was banned in November, 2015 after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) probe exposed state-sponsored doping on a massive scale. The suspension was upheld last year, ruling almost all Russian track and field athletes out of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. A second report by Canadian professor Richard McLaren last year said Moscow 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. “If everything goes in accordance to plan there will be a full reinstatement by November 2017,” Anderson said. “Which means that Russia as a nation, or RUSAF, is not recommended by us to be reinstated until that time.” Anderson said Russia had been presented with a list of demands before it could be allowed to compete again, adding that there had been positive and negative developments in meetings in Moscow last month. The negative ones included “unhelpful comments” by Vitaly Mutko, the Russian sports minister and deputy prime minister, he said. Anderson added that RUSAF faced practical and legal difficulties in enforcing provisional doping bans, that there was limited testing of athletes at national level and “troubling incidents” were happening when testing was taking place. He said that for Russia to be reinstated, testing of the country’s athletes had to be undertaken “without further incidents or difficulties”. RUSAF must explain how it will enforce suspensions on athletes and officials in an “effective and timely” fashion and take “demonstrable objective and practical steps” to cultivate clean sports. Anderson also demanded “an appropriate official response” by Russia to the McLaren report findings that sports ministry and security service officials were involved in the doping cover-ups. “Our priority is to return clean athletes to competition but we must all have confidence in the process,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said. “Clean Russian athletes have been badly let down by their national system. We must ensure they are protected and that those safeguards give confidence to the rest of the world that there is a level playing field of competition when Russians return.” Meanwhile, IAAF has put an immediate stop to changes of nationality by athletes, saying the system has become open to abuse and rules are being manipulated. Coe said a working group would be set up to agree new rules by the end of the year. “It has become abundantly clear that with regular multiple transfers of allegiance, especially from Africa, the present rules are no longer fit for purpose,” Coe told reporters on Monday. “Athletics has to be based on national teams and is particularly vulnerable,” Coe added. “The rules do not provide protection necessary for individual athletes, they are open to abuse. Many federations regularly receive reports of athletes who are available for trade.” The IAAF said the ban would not affect 15 applications to switch allegiance which have already been made. Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, the African representative on the IAAF Council, will lead the working group. “The present situation is wrong,” Malboum said. “What we have is a wholesale market for African talent open to the highest bidder. Our present rules are being manipulated to the detriment of Athletics’ credibility. In another decision, the IAAF Council approved Coe’s proposal to end formal bidding processes for the hosting of major Athletics events, including the World Championships. Instead, the IAAF said it would assess “strategic goals” for growing the sport, “targeting cities from countries and regions which will best assist the delivery of those aims”. It said the new selection process would start with the awarding of IAAF events after 2021. North Carolina’s bathroom law puts NCAA events at risk North Carolina is close to losing NCAA championship events for six years at a cost of more than $250 million because of a law that restricts bathroom access for transgender people, a local sports official told state lawmakers on Monday. The governing body for US college athletics is reviewing bids to host events through spring 2022, including 133 from North Carolina cities and universities, said Scott Dupree, executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance. The law known as House Bill 2, which bars transgender people from using government-run restrooms that match their gender identity and limits local nondiscrimination protections, will doom the state’s chances, Dupree wrote in a letter. “Our contacts at the NCAA tell us that, due to their stance on HB 2, all North Carolina bids will be pulled from the review process and removed from consideration,” said Dupree, adding he was sharing the information on behalf of the North Carolina Sports Association.The NCAA did not respond to a request for comment.