Athletics Integrity Unit welcomes CAS decision to sanction 12 Russian athletes based on the evidence underlying the McLaren reports
Press Release
4th February 2019
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has welcomed the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to sanction 12 Russian athletes in connection with the findings of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned reports by Professor Richard H. McLaren and the related Evidentiary Disclosure Package (EDP).
The CAS has found that the violations established using that McLaren evidence were committed as part of a centralised doping scheme.
These rulings confirm an earlier CAS decision in the case of another Russian athlete, Anna Pyatykh, which was also brought forward by the AIU based on McLaren evidence in 2017 (CAS 2017/O/5039).
Brett Clothier, Head of the AIU, said: “Today’s CAS rulings confirm that the evidence underlying the McLaren Reports is reliable and is capable of establishing Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs). It needs to be noted that some of these cases were fought solely on the basis of the McLaren evidence, while others were combined with analytical evidence gathered through retesting. It is very encouraging for us and gives us the possibility to pursue more cases in the future.”
The AIU is also awaiting access to the data from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and the underlying analytical data generated by the Moscow Laboratory that WADA is currently in the process of authenticating.
“The AIU is in contact with WADA and is keeping a close eye on developments. We will wait for more information concerning the practical aspects of the sharing of the athletics- specific data from WADA and decide on the need for any further re-analysis or investigation that may be required in order to pursue more cases,” he added.
The data is crucial to build strong cases against cheats and exonerate other athletes suspected of having participated in widespread doping in Russia.
The following 12 athletes have been sanctioned through the CAS decisions notified to the parties yesterday and today (suspensions in brackets):
- Lyukman ADAMS(4 years starting from 31 January 2019)
- Tatyana Lysenko BELOBORODOVA(8 years starting from 2 July 2016)
- Mariya BESPALOVA(Currently suspended since 26 October 2015)
- Anna BULGAKOVA(4 years starting from 29 March 2017)
- Tatyana FIROVA(4 years starting from 9 June 2016)
- Yekaterina GALITSKAIA(4 years starting from 1 February 2019)
- Vera GANEEVA(2 years starting from 2 July 2018)
- Gulfiya Agafanova KHANAFEEVA(8 years starting from 6 January 2017)
- Yuliya KONDAKOVA(4 years starting from 1 February 2019)
- Svetlana SHKOLINA(4 years starting from 1 February 2019)
- Ivan UKHOV(4 years starting from 1 February 2019)
- Ivan YUSHKOV(4 years starting from 2 July 2016)
The AIU will publish further detail regarding the decisions and sanctions in due course, once the athletes have exercised their right to comment on any editorial changes in the decisions. These First Instance CAS decisions, which were adjudicated by Sole Arbitrators, are subject to appeal to a three-person Panel of the CAS Appeals Division.
