Chernova and Zaripova banned for doping by RUSADA

[polevaultpower]

This article alleges that Lamine Diack personally asked Russia to pull these athletes and others from the 2013 Worlds. I guess the corruption goes straight to the top... http://summer.sport-express.ru/athletics/reviews/53128/

[polevaultpower]

This article alleges that Lamine Diack personally asked the Russians to withdraw the athletes who failed drug tests from the 2013 World Championships. http://summer.sport-express.ru/athletics/reviews/53128/

The translation is a little rough...

Information about the problems in a large group titled Russian athletes appeared at our anti-doping authorities in late 2012, but to complete the investigation in August 2013th failed. According to unofficial information, on the eve of the World Cup in Moscow President of the International Association of Athletics Federations Lamine Diack asked the Russian side to remove suspected of stars from the competition and not to spoil the tournament doping scandal involving local athletes. In the "black list" in addition to walkers of Mordovia also featured the names and Zaripova Draft. As we can see, please Diack was performed, but it dopingerov then dragged another year and a half. During this time, Julia and Tatiana, did not announce his retirement, nearly departed term assigned to them by disqualification.

Let's start with a few basic questions...

How did Diack know about these failed tests? Is he normally informed of these things before they are public?

If he knew about these problems over a year and a half ago, how was the process allowed to drag out in secret this long?

[MJR]

and

Why is he still IAAF President?
What did the 3 VP's know and when did they know it?
If they knew, why are they still in their positions and Coe/Bubka running for President?

[mump boy]

How do you expect Chernova to qualify if she is banned until four weeks before Beijing?

Wasn't Lashawn Merrit given a free pass to the trials despite having just come back from ban and not qualifying ?

Where there's a will there's a way

[LopenUupunut]

I don't see what the big problem is if Diack really did ask the Russians to withdraw Chernova and Zaripova. What was he supposed to do - let them compete? Officially announcing doping positives takes time, and I don't believe it's his job to speed up the process.

Withdrawing dopers from big meets under the cover of an injury or illness has a long history in our sport; at least in this case the athletes concerned were actually sanctioned, rather than returning to competition as soon as the drugs were safely out of their system.

[Gabriella2]

They would have to invent results from a multivent competition where Chernova either never even showed up or where they falsified all results and that's just too big of a risk to take nowadays. How many people would have to join that conspiracy for it to work? The other athletes, all officials, press, audience, if just one person post photos online that show something that's not supposed to be there, it would be over.
.

Erm, as I said earlier, go back to gh's posted link on Moscow 80. If you can rule a clean jump a foul in front of international media and TV cameras, if you can produce doctors certificates for fake illnesses, if you can destroy doping samples and more recently if you make your athletes train with lookey-likeys in the same training camp to avoid tests....you can easily have your athlete attend a small meeting with no audience and exaggerate results.

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting that myself, rather defending Tuariki's point. These things have happened in the past and can happen now. In reality, with all the recent attention on them, I would hope the Russian Federation wouldn't and would be doing things by the book.

[Gabriella2]

There has understandably been lots of talk on Twitter from British fans. Kelly Sotherton has made some comments but so far Jess Ennis has remained quiet.

For Jess, rather than the one World gold (09) and silver (11) she has, she should have two World gold's (09,11) and a bronze (07), denied by both Chernova and Blonska.

Sotherton, with her Olympic bronze (04) and World bronze (07) should at least have two Olympic bronzes (04,08) and World Silver (07).

This is a big impact to the legacy and reputation these women have/had.

In addition, from Daegu 11 Oeser should be silver medallist and Tyminska bronze medallist and from London old stalwart Skujyte should really be bronze medallist, after Yosypenko's 2013 ban.

[dbirds]

Time to open the drug forum?

[polevaultpower]

I don't see what the big problem is if Diack really did ask the Russians to withdraw Chernova and Zaripova. What was he supposed to do - let them compete? Officially announcing doping positives takes time, and I don't believe it's his job to speed up the process.

Withdrawing dopers from big meets under the cover of an injury or illness has a long history in our sport; at least in this case the athletes concerned were actually sanctioned, rather than returning to competition as soon as the drugs were safely out of their system.

So again, is the IAAF President normally made aware of failed tests before they are public? And if he knew over a year and a half ago, how did he let Russia get away with covering them up for so long?

[polevaultpower]

Wasn't Lashawn Merrit given a free pass to the trials despite having just come back from ban and not qualifying ?

Where there's a will there's a way

Letting an athlete in your Trials is a different thing than letting them in Worlds or the Olympics if they have not properly qualified.

[ATK]

Letting an athlete in your Trials is a different thing than letting them in Worlds or the Olympics if they have not properly qualified.

Merritt was given a a free pass from the trials because he was still banned at the time.
He ran a qualifying time about a week or two before the WC team had to be named and less than 3 weeks before the start of Daegu.

its very possible for Chernova

[Tuariki]

in any case, parsing "national tendencies" is not really what a Current Events forum about track & field is meant to discuss.

While I agree with GH on this point, the difficulty here is that the onslaught of recent revelations about Russian athletes, Russian coaches, and Russian administration officials is current;, is about many of the world's best athletes; and is at a level that is pretty unprecedented; thus making it difficult to discuss without comments of "national tendencies" being part of the debate.

[Tuariki]

My point wasn't that i think they would be too honest to consider it, the circus around those banned walkers competing in Saransk showed there are people who will go to great lengths to circumvent the rules. But Saransk also showed why they weren't capable of doing so. We live in a world of cellphones, of everybody being online all the time. They would have to invent results from a multivent competition where Chernova either never even showed up or where they falsified all results and that's just too big of a risk to take nowadays. How many people would have to join that conspiracy for it to work? The other athletes, all officials, press, audience, if just one person post photos online that show something that's not supposed to be there, it would be over.
Chernova is a convicted doper, if she was to compete a few weeks before Beijing in an attempt to qualify, if i had anything to say in the IAAF/WADA, i would send someone there to test her.
My criticism is about the way the Russia bashing sounds, it sounds like the whole country is a bunch of cheats.

While the world of the smart phone makes cheating harder to get away with, it doesn't stop them from trying. Sergey Bakulin and Lashmanova are good examples of that. But is also an example that helps proves that this level of corruption is a cancer that is widespread throughout Russia.

Were my comments Russian bashing? I guess they were. But it is hard not to make observations along those lines when, for example, everyone racing that day against Lashimova knew she was a banned drug cheat, every official at that race meeting knew she was a banned drug cheat, every Russian administration official who was involved in re-dating the Lashimova picture knew she was a drug cheat.

If it looks like it; if it smells like it; if it tastes like it; if it feels like it; it is.

[polevaultpower]

It may not be entirely fair to say it is widespread across Russia, but the evidence is clear that Saransk is corrupt to the core. Maybe there are some innocent youth athletes and coaches there, but every coach/athlete/official/administrator at the elite level appears to have been involved in serious anti-doping violations by staging a cover-up of the banned athletes who competed Dec 30.

[gh]

Merritt was given a a free pass from the trials because he was still banned at the time.
He ran a qualifying time about a week or two before the WC team had to be named and less than 3 weeks before the start of Daegu.

its very possible for Chernova

Still not quite right. As the '09 World Champ, the IAAF gave USATF the right to name Merritt to the '11 team no matter what (in addition to antoher 3). No Q time is required.

Same right is given to all federations in all events, should they choose to use it. It's up to their discretion.

In Merritt's case, USATF has a "rule" (which is actually an "operating guideline") that to be put on the team you need to compete in the Nationals. Don't have to do well, or even run more than a heat, but need to be there. When USATF meet rolled around, Merritt was still under suspension, so couldn't satisfy that requirement and petitioned Indy under an unusual-circustamces role.

USATF said OK, and he was on the team.

He was not, I would note, the first to get such an exemption. Anjanette Kirkland got one a few years earlier because of a pregnany issue.

Chernova is not the defender so she does not have a Wild Card to Beijing. Therefore, between July 23 and August 9 (the day Q closes) she has to get a score for the Russians to be able to put her on their team.