Sports court puts Russian appeal on fast track

CAS said the appeal seeks to secure Olympic participation for “any Russian athlete who is not now the subject of any period of ineligibility for the commission of an anti-doping rule violation”.

IAAF and 68 Russian athletes who have filed appeals to CAS agreed upon an “expedited procedure” meaning, provided the appeal be successful, the timeframe would allow Russian athletes the chance to compete in the Rio Games next month.

The list of athletes approved by the suspended All-Russia Athletic Federation appears to contradict an earlier promise not to send any athletes who have previously been banned for doping offenses.

“The Olympic qualification place for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games earned by the Russian men’s quadruple sculls on 24 May 2016 is hereby withdrawn and the Fisa executive committee has decided that the New Zealand men’s quadruple sculls, which was placed third, is hereby attributed this Olympic qualification quota spot”, a World Rowing statement said.

The IAAF ban followed a November report from the World Anti-Doping Agency which said Russia’s track and field programme had been corrupted to the point where even clean drug tests were meaningless.

Olympic high jump gold medalist Anna Chicherova was cut from the Rio team after she was provisionally suspended by the IAAF for failing a retest of her sample from the 2008 Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee has said.

CAS spokeswoman Katy Hogg told AFP that the court will not be making a case by case review of each athlete’s record, but will be assessing the validity of the IAAF’s decision to ban the entire federation.

The same was thought to apply to Kenya, too, but the IAAF has clarified that its athletes do not have to go through this process as its athletics federation was never banned. What’s more, they will be able to perform under the Russian flag.

These athletes will be removed from disqualifications individually by the IAAF.

The athletes say they are being punished despite having competed without doping and that they should be eligible to race at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next month.