The Russian Athletics Federation are facing a race against time to be allowed compete at the Rio Olympics next year.
An independent World Anti-Doping Agency commission has recommended that governing body, the IAAF (pr: I-double-A-F) immediately suspends Russia from all competitive athletics after uncovering evidence of wide-spread doping that was state-sponsored and likely to have been inherited from the Cold War era.
The commission is calling for lifetime bans for five Russian athletes and a further five support staff, while also recommending that Russia be suspended from all competition until it can prove that they have the correct anti-doping measures in place.
The investigators have also out-lined incidents of doping tests that were deliberately destroyed, e-mails accounts that were targeted for cyber penetration and of Russian security agents masquerading as technicians in a WADA accredited laboratory.
The second half of the report has been deliberately with-held pending an Interpol investigation into possible criminal activity that was also uncovered.
Highland Radio’s Athletics Correspondent and Ireland Team Manager for the Olympic Games in Rio Patsy Mc Gonagle says its a sad day for the sport but it was not unexpected…
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