World Athletics stands down Russian Taskforce

In a statement released on 2 July World Athletics confirmed that it had not received payments due from the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) on 1 July nor, despite reminders and correspondence with the Federation, any information on when the monies may be paid.

As a result World Athletics will stand down both the Doping Review Board (DRB) and the Russian Taskforce until World Athletics’ Council has reviewed and discussed the situation at their meeting on 29-30 July, as set out in the decision made by the Council on 12 March .

Both the Russian Taskforce and the DRB have, in good faith, moved forward in a number of areas, said WA. The DRB has also opened up the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) process to facilitate the granting of ANA status for athletes returning to competition in preparation for the fine being paid by 1 July. This will be put on hold until the Council meets at the end of July to ensure World Athletics is not incurring additional costs that may not be reimbursed.

World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe, said: “We are very disappointed by the lack of progress made by RusAF in terms of the requirements set in March. The serious allegations of breaching the anti-doping rules resulted in a new RusAF administration and we had assurances and hoped that change was on its way. However, the experience of the Russian Taskforce is that this has fallen well short of expectations. The terms of payment of the fine and costs were clear and unchallenged by RusAF at the time so this issue will now need to return to Council at the end of July, as we stated in March.”

The payments due from RusAF by 1 July are USD 5million (EUR 4.4m) (fine) and USD 1.31million (EUR 1.2m) (Reinstatement Conditions & Verification Criteria costs incurred from 30 June 2019 to 31 March 2020, including Legal & CAS Costs; Task Force Costs; Doping Review Board Costs, and Lysenko Investigation costs).