Doping: IAAF suspend Russian federation

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have provisionally suspended the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) as an IAAF member.

The IAAF took the decision after the publication of an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report that alleged “state-sponsored doping”.

Twenty-four members of IAAF council took part in the meeting and 22 voted in favour of the sanction against ARAF while one voted against.

The council member from Russia was not eligible to participate in the vote.

Speaking on the decision, Sebastian Coe, the IAAF president called the action of ARAF “’shameful”.

“Today we have been dealing with the failure of ARAF and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time. But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world,” he said.

“This has been a shameful wake-up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated. To this end, the IAAF, WADA, the member federations and athletes need to look closely at ourselves, our cultures and our processes to identify where failures exist and be tough in our determination to fix them and rebuild trust in our sport. There can be no more important focus for our sport”

Namibian sprint legend, Frankie Fredericks, spoke on behalf of the IAAF athletes’ commission.

“The IAAF Athletes’ Commission is extremely disappointed and concerned regarding the recent developments and allegations directed at our sport,” he said.

“We are angry at the damage being caused to the reputation and credibility of athletics and are united alongside our President to not shy away from the major challenges that face our sport. The athletes will work together to continue the process of cleaning up athletics to ensure those athletes training and competing cleanly are not tainted by the minority.

“We send a clear message to clean athletes in a dirty system to report any doping or cheating that they see or hear about.  We are 100% in support of President Coe and believe that he is the leader that our sport needs to instigate the necessary actions swiftly and strongly.”

CONSEQUENCES OF PROVISIONAL SUSPENSION

– Athletes, and athlete support personnel from Russia may not compete in International Competitions including World Athletics Series competitions and the Olympic Games

– Russia will not be entitled to host the 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary) and 2016 World Junior Championships (Kazan)

– That ARAF delegates the conduct of all outstanding doping cases to CAS

The provisional suspension does not:

– prevent athletes in Russia from participating in domestic competitions

– remove or waive the obligations on international level athletes in Russia to comply with the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules, including continuing to be subject to out of competition testing