LONDON, (Reuters) – The Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) has been given clear instructions on the action it needs to take and which safeguards must be put in place before being reinstated to the sport, the IAAF said yesterday.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) published a long and detailed list of criteria that the ARAF must satisfy before the ban imposed for widespread doping offences is lifted.
Russia was suspended last month following a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) independent commission that exposed widespread, systematic state-sponsored doping and related corruption.
Russia has accepted the ban and vowed to follow the IAAF’s direction to “return to compliance.”
Russian athletes are set to miss the world indoor championships in the United States in March and face a race against time to be cleared to compete in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next August.
“The conditions we have announced leave no room for doubt. Russia must demonstrate verifiable change across a range of criteria and satisfy our task force that those criteria will be met permanently,” IAAF president Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “There is no timeline for Russia. It is up to them to implement verifiable change both in anti-doping practice and culture.”
