Despair and defiance as Russian athletes react to doping ban

CHEBOKSARY: Russia’s national track and field championships were supposed to offer a chance to secure Olympic places, but with its athletes now banned from the Rio

CHEBOKSARY: Russia’s national track and field championships were supposed to offer a chance to secure Olympic places, but with its athletes now banned from the Rio Games, excitement for competition has been replaced by despair and defiance.

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For Natalya Antyukh, the reigning Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, Rio would almost certainly be her last chance for a medal at the age of 34. “The mood has been spoiled,” Antyukh told The Associated Press on Sunday, adding that she had kept the Olympics as an “imaginary goal” for herself in the seven months that separated Russia’s suspension in November from the IAAF vote Friday that upheld the Olympic ban.

“When you lose this imaginary goal, the motivation is lost. I am an experienced athlete and I was always giving myself a new goal and motivation. But what can I achieve now?”

The championships start Monday in a stadium in the Volga River city of Cheboksary, with the likely small crowd a far cry from the pulsating atmosphere of the Olympics.

Some at the championships are angry at the International Association of Athletics Federations. Shot putter Yuri Kuzev even argued that Russia should have boycotted Olympic track and field events from the beginning rather than suffer the embarrassment of being banned.

PUTIN HAS NO PLANS TO MEET IOC, SAYS RUSSIA

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to meet with the leadership of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the near future, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. “Now the schedule (of Putin) doesn’t have any plans on the meeting with the IOC leadership in the near future, but as far as I know, president of the Russian Olympic Committee (Alexander) Zhukov has departed for contacts with the IOC leadership,” Peskov told reporters.

RUSSIA’S BAN WON’T AFFECT PARALYMPICS

BONN: Russia’s doping ban from athletics won’t affect its Paralympians, the International Paralympic Committee said on Monday. The All-Russia Athletic Federation’s suspension from international competitions, including the Olympics, was upheld last week by the IAAF. However, the IPC said it wasn’t applying the sanction to the Russian Paralympic team because they have “no association” with ARAF.