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IPC rejects Russian athletes’ appeal to compete as neutrals
MOSCOW: Russia’s disabled athletes will not be allowed to compete as neutrals at this month’s Rio de Janeiro Paralympics after their country was banned because of
MOSCOW: Russia’s disabled athletes will not be allowed to compete as neutrals at this month’s Rio de Janeiro Paralympics after their country was banned because of a state-sponsored sports doping programme.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said in a statement on Thursday it had rejected more than 175 Russian athletes who filed individual cases to try to take part in the Brazil event.
“The International Paralympic Committee ... will not allow individual Russian athletes to participate as neutral athletes at the Rio Games,” the organisation said. “The decision followed individual requests by more than 175 Russian athletes to compete at the Paralympic Games which open on September 7.”
Last week the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport’s highest tribunal, rejected a Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) appeal against the IPC suspension.
Russia appealed against the CAS ruling to the Swiss Federal Court, which declined on Wednesday to issue a preliminary injunction that would have let their disabled athletes compete in Rio. The court said it would rule later on the team’s ban.
CUBAN STRIPPED OF BEIJING SILVER
LAUSANNE: Cuban discus thrower Yarelys Barrios has been stripped of her Olympic silver medal from the 2008 Beijing Games after failing a retroactive drug test, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday.
Barrios, 33, and Qatari track and field athlete Samuel Adelebari Francis, 29, both tested positive for banned substances in tests originally taken at Beijing 2008.
Barrios, 33, won silver in the discus in Beijing. She tested positive for the diuretic and masking agent acetazolamide, and has now been ordered to return her medal. She also won bronze in London 2012.
Nigeria-born Francis, who now represents Qatar, finished 16th in the 100m event. The former Asian 100m champion tested positive for the banned substance stanozolol.
NO BRIBERY IN TOKYO 2020 BID: PROBE REPORT
TOKYO: A formal investigation found no evidence of bribery by Japanese officials on Thursday after probing a $2 million payment made during Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics.
French prosecutors said in May that they were investigating the 2 million US dollars payment to a Singapore-based consultancy.
Shortly after, the Japanese Olympic Committee set up an investigative panel of three lawyers to look into the payment, which has been linked to a son of disgraced ex-world athletics chief Lamine Diack.
AOC WANTS ATHLETES’ RECORDS CLEARED
MELBOURNE: The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) will ask Brazilian authorities to expunge records of criminal proceedings against nine athletes who were detained at the Rio Olympics after their accreditation passes were tampered with after an investigation labelled the criminal process “oppressive”.
Nine athletes were detained on August 19 by local authorities for over seven hours after they were discovered to have entered the basketball arena without proper accreditation for Australia’s semi-final against Serbia.
