- Title: Russia make progress on anti-doping but still 'issues' - IAAF
- Date: 31st July 2017
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JULY 31, 2017) (REUTERS) ****WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** IAAF SPOKESPEOPLE ARRIVE FOR PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDEPENDENT CHAIR PERSON OF THE IAAF TASKFORCE, RUNE ANDERSEN, SAYING: "We have the taskforce has outlined that material progress has been made but there are still issues which need to be resolved as we move forward with the work we're doing with RUSAF. The Council agreed to our recommendations to continue to suspend RUSAF and to recommend to the IAAF Congress to continue the suspension until all of the conditions set by the Council has been met." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDEPENDENT CHAIR PERSON OF THE IAAF TASKFORCE, RUNE ANDERSEN, SAYING: "I can confirm that our impression is that they really want to meet all the conditions and all the criteria that has been set. It is clear they have shown huge progress since we started this journey in November 2015 but as I said in my introduction there are still remaining issues to be resolved. Whether that can happen tomorrow or later it's too early to say. We just need to work with Russia, with RUSAF and with the authorities to try to remedy and to meet the criteria and that's when the reinstatement can happen." WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDEPENDENT CHAIR PERSON OF THE IAAF TASKFORCE, RUNE ANDERSEN, SAYING: "In general, the main issue that no meaningful testing as it says in the criteria is being conducted. As you will know RUSADA, the anti-doping organisation of Russia, is still not code compliant. They have started some testing but not comprehensive testing. You'll know maybe that prior to RUSADA being tested they did some 18, 19 thousand tests a year - now it is a few thousand tests. It's a long way to go before they can conduct the testing which we consider to be meaningful. So, that's one issue and RUSADA needs to be reinstated. We are working with the Russians on the changing culture. There are some good movements now, starting with athletics themselves wanting to change but they haven't shown and demonstrated that this is in place and so that's another issue. They need to be able to enforce suspension on coaches for instance that have been suspended - that hasn't happened. The race working coach (Viktor) Chegin and (Vladimir) Kazarin - there suspension has not been enforce, they continue to coach so that is another issue which needs to be resolved and you will see from the list of our report of several other issues which needs to be resolved too." WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS WATCHING (SOUNDBITE) (English) IAAF PRESIDENT, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING: "From Rune's remarks and the observations made it's not that we're not registering progress in Russia - we are, and it is moving in the right direction. I think the discussion that we're having is about the speed of that progress and the taskforce's observation to us that there are still some outstanding issues but if you look at this as I have to and in a way I have the process behind me because this man and our taskforce has been doing this since effectively November of 2015 we have seen progress and, yes, on some occasions some of that progress has been quicker than other occasions and it's tended to speed up a little bit when there's been a focus normally around the major championships. It's not that there's been no progress but the progress we want needs to culminate in a meeting of that criteria and it's clear it's unambiguous." WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE SIGN READING (English): "IAAF" / WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDEPENDENT CHAIR PERSON OF THE IAAF TASKFORCE, RUNE ANDERSEN, SAYING: "I thought I had been talking for too long so I dropped that part but it was on my list here - acknowledgment of the McLaren report. No, we haven't gotten that acknowledgment and rebuttal of issues they might rebut. It's not resolved and it's an important part of the remaining issues that needs to be clarified." SEBASTIAN COE AT END OF PRESS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 14th August 2017 21:08
- Keywords: Seb Coe sport athletics running Russia doping IAAF
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Athletics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016S1TXKV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said progress has been made with Russia's anti-doping procedures but there are still 'issues' and therefore a suspension will remain in place.
Russia's head of athletics Dmitry Shlyakhtin is travelling to London this week to address the sport's governing body in a bid to have his country's international ban lifted.
Shlyakhtin, president of Russia's athletics federation (RUSAF), will make a speech at the IAAF Congress on Thursday, a day before the World Championships begin at the London Stadium.
RUSAF has been banned since November 2015 after an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) inquiry exposed state-sponsored doping on a massive scale.
Russia's deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, said last week that RUSAF was unlikely to be reinstated during the Congress, although 19 Russian athletes have been given permission to compete as neutrals in London.
The Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) is still deemed non-compliant by WADA even though it has been allowed to resume testing under the supervision of international appointed experts and the UK anti-doping agency (UKAD), after meeting conditions set down by the global anti-doping body.
Both the IAAF and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) still regard Russia as non-compliant. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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