RIO 2016
IAAF upholds ban: Russia's athletes likely to miss Rio 2016
Russian State news agency TASS claims that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has suspended the Russian Federation for breaching anti-doping regulations.
During a Board meeting at the Grand Hotel Wien in Vienna on Friday, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) made a decision to ban the All-Russia Athletic Federation from participating in August's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Russian State news agency TASS announced the news ahead of an official statement which is expected from the IAAF this evening.
The IAAF uphold the suspension, confirmed by the world sport authority's president Sebastian Coe, on the grounds that: "Russia has shown that it is incapable of complying with the criteria and formalities demanded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)".
RUSAF will lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS/CAS). Prsident of Russia Vladimir Putin has made a plea to allow "the [Track and Field] athletes who are clean can be given permission to compete [at the Games]".
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) are to hold an extraordinary meeting next week to deal with Russia's suspension from Rio 2016, and while it looks unlikely, although not entirely impossible, they could decide to reassess the cases of the athletes who have not been found in breach of anti-doping rules and give them a provisional repreive, pending a second decision from the IAAF.