From Inside the Games
An appeal by the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against their suspension from international competition has been withdrawn.
RusAF have been suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since November 2015 when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence through an Independent Commission of state-sponsored doping and cover ups.
The Federation launched an appeal to CAS after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reinstated the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).
After this decision, Russia were warned by both the IAAF and International Paralympic Committee that they should not expect their bans from those organisations to be automatically lifted.
RusAF had argued the criteria for RUSADA’s ban to be lifted was identical to its own.
The IAAF has required RusAF to “take responsibility” for its role in the doping crisis and provide access to data from the Moscow Laboratory.
This was also required by WADA to reinstate RUSADA, but the global watchdog softened the two remaining criteria on the body’s compliance roadmap to pave the way for Russian reinstatement.
RUSADA’s compliance status was confirmed by the WADA Executive Committee earlier this week following a recommendation from their Compliance Review Committee (CRC), despite Russia missing the deadline to hand over access to data from the Moscow Laboratory.
WADA warned, however, that Russia could be banned from competing at next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and prohibited from hosting major events in any sport if the data retrieved from the Laboratory two weeks late is found to have been tampered with.
The intelligence and investigations department overseeing the authentication process will submit progress reports to the CRC every two weeks.
If evidence of manipulation is found, the CRC has claimed it will convene “immediately” to review the facts and will recommend the WADA Executive Committee declare RUSADA non-compliant.
RusAF have claimed their decision to withdraw their appeal to CAS follows RUSADA being declared complaint.
The organisation claims the criteria for their reinstatement in the IAAF has been satisfied, so assert there is no longer a need to challenge the governing body.
