Russians bid to avoid ban as IOC reports new test failures

MOSCOW: Russia on Friday made a last-ditch bid to avoid a blanket ban at the Rio Games over state-run doping as a fresh batch of drug test failures from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 rocked the Olympics.

The world athletics body IOC reported separately on Friday 45 new doping failures from the last two Games, bringing the total number of positive drug tests to 98 since a retesting programme was launched.

The IOC has reanalysed more than 1,200 samples, with the emphasis on medal winners, in a bid to clean up the Olympics’ reputation.

It said it was not able to identify the athletes concerned or their nationalities for legal reasons but said 30 positives came back from Beijing, including for 23 medal winners, and 15 from London.

The individuals, national Olympic committees and sports federations have been privately informed, however, the IOC added. “All athletes found to have infringed the anti-doping rules will be banned from competing (in Rio),” the statement continued.

The third and fourth rounds of re-analysis will be carried out during after the Games in Brazil, which start in two weeks.

The 30 positive results came from eight countries and four sports. The second wave of retests from London included 138 samples. The 15 positive tests were from nine countries and two sports.

The IOC noted however that a provisional finding can be reversed on closer examination. Two provisional positives from the first wave of Beijing tests announced in May were ultimately not deemed conclusive.

“The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping,” Olympics president Thomas Bach said in a statement. The IOC has said the retesting programme followed “intelligence-gathering” that began last year.

Following the first wave of retests, Russia admitted that eight of its athletes from London 2012 were implicated.

Russia is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement and President Vladimir Putin launched a final push to avert a ban.

“The official position of the Russian authorities — the government, the president and all of us — is that in sport there is not and can be no place for doping,” Putin told government ministers.

The Kremlin strongman ordered officials to cooperate with the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency and Russia’s Olympic committee to establish an anti-doping commission.

The IOC is facing international pressure to act tough on Russia and ban the entire team over incendiary revelations of a state-run doping system that has seen the country cheat its way to victory.

Fourteen national anti-doping agencies including the United States, Canada and Germany sent a joint letter to IOC President Thomas Bach on Thursday urging him to ban Russia from Rio.

Officials in Moscow have slammed the decision by CAS to reject its appeal against a ban from the  IAAF, calling it part of a broader political campaign by the West against Russia.

The suspension of the track and field team already means that star athletes like pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and hurdler Sergey Shubenkov will not be in Rio.

Isinbayeva — who has threatened to call time on her career over the ban — slammed the CAS ruling as a “funeral for athletics”.

Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko — who has clung on despite the scandal — said Moscow now hopes the IOC will defer to individual international sporting federations to decide whether other Russian squads can compete.

Whether Russian Olympians tested positive in the second round, the new results may pile more pressure on the IOC.

But Russia has found support from some international sports bodies, with the International Judo Federation (IJF) insisting all clean athletes should be allowed to take part in Rio.

Individual Russian sports federations said they were now looking nervously ahead for the IOC to make its next move.