by Alfonz Juck
The RusAF soap opera continues. In August, RusAF paid WA $ 6 million to cover expenses in the doping scandals. Now, WA is extending the time that RusAF has to develop a plan to come back into the global athletics community.
Deadline for RusAF extended
MOSCOW (RUS): World Athletics Council has extended the deadline for the Russian Athletics Federation’s (RusAF) Reinstatement Commission to finalise its restoration plan from 30 September to 1 March. The World Athletics Council approved the extension after its Taskforce deemed the RusAF does not have the resources available to produce a detailed and appropriate plan for reinstatement. Also World Athletics is in the process of engaging its two international experts who will be able to guide and support the new RusAF team to produce an adequate plan. Dr Margarita Pakhnotskaya, the former Deputy Director-General of RUSADA, has been appointed as one of the two experts based in Russia. The second one will be named later. For Russian athletes this is good news: The Council will consider the status of the Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) programme, which has previously allowed individual Russian athletes to compete internationally despite RusAF’s suspension, at its December meeting.
