Diack resigns as honorary International Olympic Committee member – IOC

“The IOC has asked the IAAF to initiate disciplinary procedures against all athletes, coaches and officials who have participated in the Olympic Games and are accused of doping in the report of the Independent Commission”, the statement said.

The Russian Sports Ministry said it was open for closer cooperation with WADA to eliminate any irregularities committed by Russia’s anti-doping watchdog and its accredited laboratory.

The All-Russia Athletics Federation is also expected to present its explanations to the worldwide Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) before Friday, when it meets to discuss the scandal.

The report also identified “systematic failures” by the IAAF governing body, already rocked by the probe against Diack and other officials. The affair took a dramatic twist last week when former IAAF chief LamineDiack was charged with corruption on suspicion of taking bribes to cover up doping cases. During the test, “it is frequently the case that the athlete is unaccompanied to the location where the sample is provided and therefore, there is no observation of the urine stream from the athlete”, the report states.

The report, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, recommended Russia’s suspension from track and field competitions, a move that would hurt the country’s chances of competing on the track at next year’s Olympics. He later said he misunderstood the instructions he received from WADA about the samples, a claim the report’s authors said they don’t find credible.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency is due to prepare and send to WADA a report explaining reasons for the violations highlighted in the commission report before November 17.

“WADA said it was acting on the recommendation of an independent commission, set up to investigate doping charges in Russian Federation”.

The former president of the Russian athletics federation says he will clear his name in court.

“(We) give our full backing and support to the IAAF President Sebastian Coe in his efforts to lead the sport through the hard and complicated process ahead”, he said.

Valentin Balakhnichev, who headed the federation for more than 20 years until resigning in February following a string of doping cases, was accused in the report of involvement in a scheme to extort money from athletes accused of doping. “We have also made it clear that if officials or coaches have been involved that they will be banned from future games”.

Monday’s release of the report came months after a German broadcaster’s analysis of thousands of leaked blood tests from track and field athletes showed “a third of medals – including 55 golds – handed out at the Olympics and World Championships between 2001 and 2012 were won by athletes whose test results were suspicious”, as the Two-Way reported.

Zelichenok also said the accusations of state-sponsored doping are part of a conspiracy.

We still don’t know quite how dirty the world of track and field is, but what we do know is that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has started the big cleanup.

The report published by the WADA commission contains “an element of material made to order”, Zelichenok said in comments reported by Russian media.