Russian athletics could be expelled

Russia could be expelled from World Athletics after missing the deadline to pay more than $9m in fines.

Russian athletics faces exile for several key events

Russia could be expelled from World Athletics after missing the deadline to pay more than $9m in fines.

The Russian federation, Rusaf, had claimed this week that the financial impact of COVID-19 meant that it could not afford to pay fines imposed after it admitted to assisting an athlete in trying to avoid a doping sanction.

A statement from World Athletics confirmed that Rusaf had missed the July 1 deadline for the $US5m ($7m) fine and a further $US1.31m in costs for its reinstatement.

World Athletics has responded to that by suspending the program for enabling some Russian athletes, subject to the Doping Review Board, to compete as authorised neutral athletes. But senior sources have told The Times that the World Athletics Council may now revisit its decision this month and could recommend to its congress that the Russians be expelled.

Congress usually coincides with the World Athletics Championships, which were due to take place in Eugene next summer but have now been postponed until the summer of 2022. An emergency congress is likely next year, although it could fall after the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games.

An apparent refusal by Russia to comply with the demands of World Athletics lessens the likelihood of its suspension being lifted and the participation of its neutral athletes in Japan. The Russians are already threatening to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but

the World Athletics president, Lord Coe, made it clear that he has an appetite for a fight.

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A statement from the organisation said: “World Athletics can confirm that it has not received the payments due from the Russian Athletics Federation on July 1, nor any information on when the monies may be paid, despite reminders and correspondence with the federation.

“As a result, World Athletics will stand down both the Doping Review Board and the Russian Taskforce until World Athletics’ Council has reviewed and discussed the situation at their meeting on July 29-30, as set out in the decision made by the council on 12 March.”

Coe said: “We recognise these are difficult times, but we are very disappointed by the lack of progress made by Rusaf in terms of the requirements set in March.

“The serious allegations of breaching the anti-doping rules resulted in a new Rusaf administration and we had assurances that change was on its way.

“However, the experience of the Russian Taskforce, chaired by Rune Andersen, is that this has fallen well short of expectations. Rusaf is letting its athletes down badly. We have done as much as we can to expedite our process and support Rusaf with its reinstatement plan, but seemingly to no avail.”

THE TIMES