Former Russian athletics chief Balakhnichev says IAAF ban is ‘politicized’

Banned for life are Valentin Balakhnichev, the former president of the All-Russia Athletic Federation who was also the IAAF’s honorary treasurer; Alexei Melnikov, a former ARAF coach; and Papa Massata Diack a former marketing consultant to the IAAF who is also the son of the IAAF’s former president, Lamine Diack.

Papa Diack, Balakhnichev and Melnikov were last month charged with multiple breaches of anti-doping rules relating to Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Dolle, the former director of the IAAF’s anti-doping department, has been given a five-year ban.

The Monaco-based IAAF, reeling from a succession of doping and graft scandals, said it was “angered to see that individuals have in the panel’s finding “conspired to extort what were in substance bribes from the athletes by acts of blackmail”.

“All three compounded the vice of what they did by conspiring to extort what were in substance bribes from LS by acts of blackmail”.

Among events she is alleged to have competed at after suspicions were first raised and payments were taken was the London 2012 Olympic Games, where she failed to finish the marathon. Balakhnichev and Diack were also fined $25,000 and Melnikov $15,000.

The IAAF issues lifetime bans to three senior officials over allegations of doping cover-ups.

It said that in Dolle’s case “his sins were those of omission, rather than commission”.

Russia’s R-Sport agency reported that Balakhnichev described the ban as “politicised” and said that he meant to appeal; but the country’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko said there was no point in appealing as the ban “had been expected”.

Shobukhova competed in the Olympics, dropping out during the race.

“The (2014) repayment was to be a quid pro quo for her acceptance of sanction”, the IAAF report said. For instance, the money that Shobukhova, 38, says was repaid to her was routed through Black Tidings, a now-defunct company in Singapore, according to the commission’s report.

The document said a similar coverup system was in place not only in Russian Federation “but potentially in other countries such as Morocco and Turkey”.

IAAF president Seb Coe said the bans “could not send a stronger message that those who attempt to corrupt or subvert the sport of athletics will be brought to justice”.

“The IAAF is reassured that the panel of the ethics board has seen no evidence implicating any other members of the IAAF anti-doping department”, it said in a statement. “We continue to work with the French authorities’ investigation and the WADA’s Independent Commission”, said IAAF president Sebastian Coe.

This all follows the WADA Independent Commission’s allegations of systemic and state sponsored doping within Russian athletics.

Next Thursday that commission is to release the second part of its investigation into doping and corruption and is expected to further criticise the IAAF’s role, having held back the release pending French police and Interpol investigations.

As well as doubling the anti-doping budget to Dollars 8million, Coe’s plans also include a new chief executive to be appointed by mid-2016, the establishment of a separate integrity unit for athletics, to be up and running before August’s Olympics in Rio, and doubling the current worldwide testing pool of athletes to 1,000.