IAAF to rule if Russian athletes will be banned from Rio Olympics after 736 dodged drug tests, 52 positives

RUSSIAN athletes have dodged 736 drugs tests in seven months and their shame files will be assessed ahead of one of the biggest calls in Olympic history.

Former ASADA boss Richard Ings says the only way Russia could be allowed back was if their Olympic athletes had records to show they had been tested and were clean

RUSSIAN athletes have dodged 736 drugs tests in seven months and their shame files will be laid bare when one of the biggest decisions in Olympic history is made on Friday.

The world body for international athletics (the IAAF) will decide in Vienna whether the Russian athletic team will be allowed to compete at the Rio Games after being banned from international competition since November for systematic doping.

It is a complex decision which will see fierce lobbying on both sides.

Former ASADA boss Richard Ings on Thursday said the only way Russia could be allowed back was if they could prove their Olympic athletes had been subjected to relentless testing from independent drug testers and had records to show they were clean.

Their case has been tarnished by the World Anti-Doping Agency releasing a scathing report of Russia’s progress since the ban, claiming 736 tests from Russian athletes were declined or cancelled from November last year and 52 returned positive.

There were also 111 occasions when athletes were uncontactable and reports of testers being obstructed and harassed by Russian security services.

It was also revealed one Russian athlete attempted to bribe an official and also tried to use clean urine inserted inside her body as her swab sample.

For all the damning evidence, the decision to ban a nation’s athletic team from competing in a Games is a major call and in the shady world of international sport and politics common sense can never be taken for granted.

Russian athletics has been sanctioned already for widespread and systematic doping.

“This is a test of whether the world anti-doping movement can impose a consequence on a national federation in the same way it can do for an individual athlete,’’ Ings said.

“There is really only one way I can see that the Russian team could, with any credibility be allowed to compete.

“If Russia can demonstrate by putting out comprehensive lists that every single member of the team has been subject to independent, comprehensive anti-doping tests for the months before the Games.

“If they have focused their tests on their Olympic-bound team and can say we have 500 people on the team and they have been tested urine and blood five times by independent testers without notice, it would be very hard not to be satisfied that everything that could have been done has been done.

“You will hear the argument that there are some athletes who are not involved in doping (who could be banned) but what anti-doping is about nationally is about assuring the world that a comprehensively program of measures are in place so that when our team turns up at an Olympic competition we have done everything to ensure they are clean.

“This issue is not whether Russian athletes are clean or dirty. It’s whether Russian athletes are subjected to a comprehensive, best practice anti-doping program. You can’t say that at the moment but in fairness to Russia you cannot say that about some other nations as well.

“It was always an impossible ask for the anti-doping framework in Russia to be fixed for Rio.’’

Originally published as IAAF to rule if Russian athletes will be banned from Rio Olympics after 736 dodged drug tests, 52 positives