IAAF officials explored hush up of Russian Federation bans — APNewsBreak

When the World Anti-Doping Agency exposed a vast, state-sponsored doping program within Russia’s track and field federation in November, the sport’s global governing body reacted with shock and outrage, calling the report a “shameful wake-up call” and nearly immediately banning the Russian team from worldwide competition.

In an interview with Sky News, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) also insisted he was unaware of attempts to minimise the impact of widespread doping in Russia.

Sessions also focused on organizational issues that are necessary to quickly consider doping cases, investigating problems mentioned in the report by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Independent Commission, collecting information about the location of athletes and comprehensive testing of Russian athletes before WADA restores the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), as well as educational and other measures necessary for introducing zero tolerance policy for doping in Russian athletics. The person requested anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to release the documents.

Perhaps pre-emptively, the IAAF announced last week that it had imposed bans from the sport on Doll; Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, a former marketing consultant to the organisation; Valentin Balakhnichev, a former president of the All-Russia Athletic Federation; and Alexei Melnikov, a former Russian coach for long-distance walkers and runners.

“Not only are these athletes cheating their fellow competitors but at these levels are putting their health and even their own lives in very serious danger”, Weiss added.

“In addition (and now not surprisingly) the blood values of the Russian athletes in Birmingham were also high, with three of the five athletes tested recording very suspicious values”. A list from the IAAF’s anti-doping department, dated November 3, 2011, names 23 Russian athletes with “abnormal” blood profiles whose cases are at different stages in the pipeline toward possible sanctions. They can increase the risk of clots, strokes and heart attacks.

“There was an open and frank discussion” during meetings with Russian officials this week, Andersen said.

The AP reported Tuesday that IAAF officials were already so concerned about Russia’s doping crisis as far back as 2009 that they feared athletes could die from blood-boosting drugs and transfusions. The elite athletes could not be discreetly removed from major competitions.

Lamine Diack, Lord Coe’s predecessor as president, is the subject of a police investigation over claims he took money to cover up positive tests by Russian athletes.

Pound was quick to criticise Coe and Sergey Bubka, the Ukrainian pole vault legend whom the British two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist beat to succeed Diack in August, saying: “They had an opportunity a long time ago to address issues of governance, and you saw from the International Olympic Committee what happens if you don’t do that – you get your tits in the wringer”.

The AP was given the documents from a source involved in the workings of the IAAF’s anti-doping program for years.

Earlier, some IAAF officials had reportedly discussed penalizing top-ranked Russian athletes while trying to deal with second-tier competitors in a quiet manner that would avoid public notice. The 2012 follow-up note was from Dolle to Diack, Turner said.

IAAF deputy general secretary Nick Davies has stepped aside while an investigation takes place over a separate plan to delay naming Russian drug cheats – before the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. “At least I didn’t know and didn’t hear about there being any”.

Turner said a colleague of Dolle’s in the anti-doping department objected at the time to the proposed non-disclosure of bans and they were published.

“Every athlete was investigated and has either been sanctioned or is now going through a legal process as part of being sanctioned”, he said.

“The suggestions, if accurate, are most concerning”, WADA spokesman Ben Nichols said in a statement to AP.

“Although yet to be proven in humans, some believe that doped athletes could benefit even after a four-year ban”.