Tuesday 10 November 2015

Athletics doping: Russia 'committed to anti-doping fight'

BBC News
Russia's sports ministry has said it is open to co-operating more closely with the World Anti-Doping Agency after it was implicated in a damning report.
It said Wada's work would help Russia "to perfect its anti-doping system" and "specialists" were studying the report's findings.
The report said widespread doping was "state-sponsored" and even secret services had been complicit.
But the Kremlin has dismissed the report's accusations as "groundless".
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said proof of the claims was lacking.
The report sent shockwaves through the world of sport - with Australia backing its call to ban Russia from all competitions including next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
On Tuesday, UK Athletics chief Ed Warner told the BBC that Russian teams should not appear in Rio.
The head of world athletics, Lord Coe, has given the All-Russia Athletic Federation, Araf, until the end of the week to respond to the claims.

'No interference'

Russia's sports ministry insisted the country was "fully committed to the fight against doping in sport".
It said it would work more closely with Wada.
The ministry has said it was "not surprised by most of the points in the report" and was "fully aware of the problems in" Araf and had already taken steps to address them, with new management and new chief trainer.
But, it insisted, "we do not interfere in [national anti-doping agency] Rusada and anti-doping laboratory work".
A car is driven past the Anti-Doping Centre, Russia's national laboratory for sports drug testing in Moscow, Russia, on 10 November 2015Image copyrightAP
Image captionThe report recommended Wada withdraw its accreditation of the Araf-accredited Moscow laboratory
File image of Russian Sports Minister Vitaly MutkoImage copyrightPA
Image captionBut Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko insists the samples were destroyed at Wada's request
That echoes strong denials by sports minister Vitaly Mutko that Araf had destroyed hundreds of doping samples illicitly at the body's accredited laboratory in Moscow - insisting it had done so only at Wada's request.
He said that excluding his country from competitions was not the answer and that doping issues could only be resolved through co-operation.
The sports ministry also suggested that other anti-doping organisations, "including international ones", should also be subjected to scrutiny to check for violations.

Exclusion fear

The ministry's statement notably ignores claims of government complicity in the corruption, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow.
The more conciliatory tone is perhaps down to the main concern here - avoiding a ban for Russian athletes from the next Olympics.
It is a field in which this country has always excelled, our correspondent says, and its exclusion would be a huge blow.
Media caption
Russian doping 'worse than thought'
Wada's independent commission examined allegations of doping, cover-ups, and extortion in Russian athletics, which also implicated the IAAF, the sport's world governing body.
It says London 2012 was "sabotaged" by "widespread inaction" against athletes with suspicious doping profiles.
The report recommended that five athletes and five coaches should be given lifetime doping bans.
The international police body Interpol says it will be co-ordinating a global investigation into the suspected corruption and doping.

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