Russia tennis, archery teams cleared for Rio Games

LONDON: Russia’s eight-member tennis and three-member archery teams for the Rio Olympics were cleared to play by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the World Archery Federation (WA) respectively after the International Olympic Committee opted against a blanket ban for state-backed sports doping.

The ITF said that the players nominated by Russia all met the requirements set down to guarantee their participation at the Games which start on August 5.

All eight have “been subject to a rigorous anti-doping testing programme outside Russia”.

This included a total of 205 samples collected since 2014, of which 83 (40%) were collected in-competition and 122 (60%) out-of-competition. Also, 111 (54%) were urine samples and 94 (46%) were blood samples.

“The ITF believes that this is sufficient for the eight Russian tennis players to meet the relevant requirement of today’s decision of the IOC Executive Board,” said an ITF statement.

The Russian team comprises Andrey Kuznetsov, Evgeny Donskoy and Teymuraz Gabashvili in the men’s singles.

In women’s singles, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Darya Kasatkina and Ekaterina Makarova will play while Elena Vesnina features in the women’s doubles.

“The ITF will be seeking confirmation from WADA that none of those players, or the Russian Tennis Federation, were implicated in the McLaren report.”

Meanwhile, WA said Russia’s Tuiana Dashidorzhieva, Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova, who formed the women’s recurve team that won the world championships last year, met the requirements set down to guarantee their participation.

In the light of the findings of the McLaren report, the WA also expressed support for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “courageous decision” against imposing a blanket ban on Russia, which it felt would have been unfair to clean Russian athletes.