Sebastian Coe: Russia ban no yet lifted

IAAF president Sebastian Coe said Thursday that Russia still has two pre-conditions to meet before they are allowed to return to international competition, despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) deciding to lift a ban on Russia’s anti-doping agency.

WADA controversially ended a three-year suspension imposed after Russia was accused of mounting a state-sponsored doping programme.

That in theory paves the way for a return to competition for Russian athletes.

However, the IAAF, which has banned Russian track and field competitors, insists they remain to be convinced.

The organisation’s taskforce will compile a report with a recommendation which will be presented to the IAAF Council at the beginning of December.

“The reinstatement of RUSADA (the Russian anti-doping agency) was one of three pre-conditions,” the IAAF said in a statement.

“The other two pre-conditions are Russian authorities must acknowledge the findings of the McLaren and Schmid Commissions that Ministry of Sport officials were implicated in the scheme to cover up the doping of Russian athletes as described in their reports.

“The Russian authorities must (also) provide access to the data from testing of samples at the Moscow lab from 2011 to 2015, so that the Athletics Integrity Unit can determine whether the suspicious findings reported in the Moscow lab’s database should be pursued.”

Coe said the outstanding pre-conditions will need to be discussed by the taskforce.

“The setting of our own criteria and the process of evaluating progress against these criteria has served athletics well over the last three years so we will continue to rely on the taskforce and our clear roadmap for RusAF (Russian athletics federation) reinstatement until we are satisfied that the conditions have been met,” said Coe.