Track Championships:30 Russian athletes wear the IAAF badge for WAC

At world track championships, it’s as if world’s biggest country simply doesn’t exist. Suspended for its second world championships due to doping, Russia has sent 30 “Authorized Neutral Athletes” who can’t wear national colours. icon next to ir name on television and on scoreboards in stium is “IAAF” logo of track’s federation inste of Russian flag. re’s getting used to being neutral, says Mariya Lasitskene, who’s been here before when she won high jump world title in 2017. Her anm wasn’t played. “ one’s used to it. Everyone’s worried and nervous. It’s t nice. You want to be in a different uniform, and t to see IAAF next to your surname,” she said after qualifying for final Friday.

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Russia hopes to send a full team to this year’s championships

Wearing subdued blacks and greys, Russia’s athletes dress like y’re modelling generic sportswear. A vetting process has kept out past stars with a history of drug use, so team in Doha is just 30 athletes. Lasitskene is only reigning champion, but Russians are also targeting medals in men’s high jump and 110-meter hurdles. Nearly four years into its ban from track and field, much longer than in any or sport, Russia dared hope it might once again send a full team to this year’s championships. Inste, Russian track is battling a new wave of scandals.

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Investigating ncy could place furr restrictions on Russia 

This year has seen banned coaches still working, forged medical documents and — most damagingly of all — evidence revealed Monday that data on past offences were tampered with before Russian law enforcement handed it over in January. World Anti-Doping ncy is investigating and could place furr restrictions on Russia across multiple sports ahe of next year’s Olympics in Tokyo. Lasitskene is alrey taking precautions. If WA suspends Russia’s anti-doping ncy, she’ll move abro — though “definitely t to U.S.” — to show she’s under a rigorous testing program. 

“We’d be going to train, and I’ll underline that. To train, t to change nationality,” she said. “Training abro might very well be needed because I don’t want to miss Olympics a second time.”

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In 2016, Lasitskene was a contender for Olympic gold, but she was barred along with almost all of Russian squ. winning height of 1.97 meters was easily within her range.  IAAF hoped a ban would prevent a repeat of widespre cheating at 2013 championships in Moscow by forcing Russia to develop a new, clean generation of athletes. But young athletes have been implicated too. Of six Russians who won medals at last world championships in 2017, two have since been stripped of neutral athlete status which allows m to compete internationally. Racewalk silver medalist Sergei Shirobokov was found at a secret training camp in Kyrgyzstan with a coach banned for life for blood doping.

case of ar 2017 medalist, high jumper Danil Lysenko, won’t go away. After he missed three drug tests, he faced a ban. In his defence, Russian track federation produced medical documents apparently showing he h been too ill to test. 
After suspicions were raised about apparently n-existent clinic named on documents, IAAF’s Russia task force reports Lysenko later confessed documents were fake. He said top officials from Russian track federation “conspired with him to obtain and provide those documents.” task force ded he “subsequently recanted that allegation.” 
Being neutral doesn’t make Russian athletes independent of ir doping-tainted federation, which still decides team selections and coaching appointments. That means few Russian athletes are willing to speak out about federation’s slow pace of reform.

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