(ATR) A new WADA report could be the tipping point for a decision on whether to ban Russian track and field athletes from the the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The 27-member IAAF Council meets in Vienna June 17 to decide whether to maintain its ban on the All-Russian Athletic Federation. The federation was suspended from international competition in November by the IAAF after an independent commission for theWorld Anti-Doping Agencydetailed systemic problems with Russian anti-doping efforts.
Now a new report from WADAshows that Russia has continued to violate testing rules even after the November suspension.WADA says the results of the report have been shared with the IAAF’s Anti-Doping Task Force.
The report, entitled "Play True – Update on the Status of Russia Testing," details transgressions including the obstruction and intimidation of WADA testers by Russian security services and officials.
WADA also revealed that sample packages had been opened by Russian customs services.
Another damning statistic is the inordinate number of tests on Russian track and field athletes that were never completed.
United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD), which took over independent testing in Russia following WADA’s decision to revoke RUSADA’s accreditation, conducted 455 tests on Russian track and field athletes between February 15 and May 29 of this year.
But UKAD reports that 736 requested tests were either declined or cancelled during that time frame, with 52 positive tests and 111 whereabouts failures.
The report highlights one particular track and field athlete who first tried to tamper with a sample and when that failed, tried to bribe the doping control officer (DCO) collecting the sample.
The report stated "1 Athletics athlete used a container inserted inside her body (presumably containing clean urine). When she tried to use the container it leaked onto the floor and not into the collection vessel. The athlete threw the container into the trash which was retrieved by the DCO. The athlete also tried to bribe the DCO. Eventually the athlete provided a sample which subsequently returned an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF)."
This week’s revelations follow recent reports that more than 20 Russian athletes tested positive for banned drugs in retests of samples from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe and his colleagues will base their June 17 decision around the final report of the task force on Russian doping led by Rune Andersen. The commission is evaluating Russia’s progress in overhauling its corrupt anti-doping system exposed in the damning WADA Independent Commission report which alleged state-sponsored doping and cover-ups. The IAAF suspended Russia from international competition in November.
Whether the Russian athletics federation is banned or not, the IOC is working on a compromise deal. A meeting of Olympic Movement stakeholders on June 21 in Lausanne will address the eligibility issue. Discussions may lead to an agreement to allow ‘clean’ Russian track and field athletes to take part in Rio.
IOC president Thomas Bach has spoken in recent weeks about "a decision we have to make between collective responsibility and individual justice", signaling a reluctance to ban the entire Russian athletics team from Rio.
WADA is coming under fire itself following a New York Times report that the agency failed to act on information given to it by Russian discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova in 2012. According to the report, she sent WADA an email in which she admitted to taking banned substances at the direction of the Russian sport and anti-doping authorities. Pishchalnikova had won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics four months before reaching out to WADA.
Written by Gerard Farek
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