Wada report: Recommend to exclude Russia from athletics – Dagbladet.no

(Dagbladet): Today came an independent commission, appointed by the International Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), with its report on doping and corruption in the athletics world. The report comes a recommendation to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to suspend It Russian Association of Athletics Federations (Araf) from competitions.

– We have had a meeting with Russia’s sports minister about this report. We told him that he had to wait bad news, says WADA Commission head Dick Pound during the presentation.

Pound adds:

– We do not think Russia is the only country with a doping problem and we do not believe that athletics is the only sport with a doping problem, says Pound.

Wada recommends also that the anti-doping laboratory in Moscow gets license removed, and that the leader should be removed from his position.

According to the report shall be 1,417 doping tests have been destroyed there deliberately to destroy evidence. Now it is recommended to ban Russian athletes until “it is cleaned up.”

obfuscation

The leader on the publicized laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov shall have admitted to having broken doping samples. He is accused also of having received money to hide the tests.

At the same time it is claimed that the state police (FSB) of Russia has watched instead. FSB accused of having infiltrated doping laboratory in Sochi Olympics in 2014 and monitored the anti-doping efforts during the championship.

report is 325 pages, but not everything will be made public because there is an ongoing criminal investigation. The report calls “corruption and bribery at the highest level in the IAAF,” is passed on to Interpol.

– We have reviewed individuals, laboratory, shown violating testing rules, obfuscation and payment of money for secrecy, says Dick Pound.

The report recommends that five Russian middle distance runners will be banned for life. The same applies to the athletes’ coaches and supporters.

– It is disappointing to see the extent of this. It’s worse than we thought. I really hope Russia will take this with him and get a fresh start. We recommend an expulsion for 2016 says Dick Pound.

– It could be that there is no Russian athletes in Brazil Olympics. I hope not, but it can not be excluded. Russia may participate in the Olympics, but they must take therapy and surgery. They have a half years in coming. I hope and think they can handle it, says Pound.

Accusations

The report was presented in Swiss Geneva at 15 and comes after major doping allegations from German broadcaster ARD. They had gained access to 12,000 blood samples from more than 5,000 practitioners, and thought they had evidence of “extraordinary prevalence of cheating” in several of the world’s biggest events. They claimed that 800 practitioners have submitted suspicious doping tests. Last week, the retired athletics president Lamine Diack charged with corruption and money laundering. 82-year-old should have received more than nine million to keep the cover over positive doping samples from the Russian athletes.

Russia announced on Thursday that they have banned five athletes for doping.

Shock waves

Athletics President Sebastian Coe says he is shocked by the accusations.

– I am shocked, angry and very sad. Allegations that woke me around potential extortion came from the blue and most of the sport probably share these feelings, said Coe recently according to NTB.

– Our sport is a pioneer when it comes to blood passport. It was introduced in 2009 and the first sanction was in place in 2011. Since then, through the use of blood pass, there have been 85 sanctions throughout the sport and 69 of them have been against practitioners, said Coe.

Athletics president continued:

– That’s more than any other sports and more than all other sports combined, and interestingly enough, more than anything else the national anti-doping agency. So no, we are not complacent, said Coe

The report will be submitted 270 days before the Summer Olympics in Rio begins next summer.

– This is going to be a “game-changer” for the sport. You have potentially a bunch of old men who have a whole lot of money in your pocket through extortion and bribery, said lead author Richard McLaren.