Russian long jumper Klishina banned from Olympics
Moscow, Aug 14 (IANS) All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) president Dmitry Shlyakhtin on Saturday said that long jumper Darya Klishina, country’s sole contender at the athletics competition in the Olympic Games, was banned from competing in the Rio Games.
“There are contradictory reports but we have confirmation from sources in Rio de Janeiro that Dasha was banned at the last moment,” Shlyakhtin told TASS.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne has received the appeal filed by Klishina who was banned from competing in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb told TASS on Saturday.
“We confirm the appeal but can provide no other comments at this moment,” Reeb said.
The “Sovetsky Sport” newspaper earlier reported that Klishina was banned from competing Games.
“On August 6, the panel of the IAAF that deals with doping issues decided to once again consider the information received from the author of the Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Richard McLaren — in particular the part that talks about Darya Klishina. As a result, the IAAF panel decided to reconsider its own decision on allowing the Russian athlete to compete made on July 9. The International Federation offered Klishina to provide her own explanation. Darya did this before August 8,” the newspaper wrote.
“However, two days later, on August 10, IAAF’s anti-doping panel made a decision to ban Darya Klishina from the Olympic Games. On August 12 Klishina received the statement of reasons for such decision. Today, on August 13, Darya Klishina filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” the newspaper added.
On June 17, the IAAF Council ruled it was still too early to restore ARAF’s membership in the international organization subsequently extending the suspension of Russian athletes from all international tournaments, including the 2016 Olympic Games.
The IAAF announced in late June that it had amended the organisation’s regulations in order to allow field and track athletes from Russia to submit individual applications for international tournaments.
The world’s governing body of athletics, however, emphasized that Russians, admitted to competitions on an individual basis, would be unable to perform as part of the national team and would participate only under a neutral flag.
Last month, IAAF’s anti-doping department rejected personal applications from all Russian track and field athletes to participate in international competitions, including the Olympic Games, except for long jumper Klishina.
Later in July, the CAS turned down an appeal from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 68 national athletes filed against IAAF, thus closing the doors on Russian field and track athletes to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil.
IOC president Thomas Bach announced in late July that Russian athletes, with the exception of track and field competitors, were allowed to participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics based on individual approval of each respective international sports federation or association.
