All-Russia Athletics Federation accepts the suspension from IAAF

IAAF President Sebastian Coe at the 202nd IAAF Council Meeting in Monaco

The All-Russia Athletics Federation(ARAF) has accepted the ban imposed on them by the International Association of Athletics Federation(IAAF) without appealing against the decision, BBC reports.

The IAAF confirmed the news through a press release on its official website stating that the ARAF has accepted the full suspension.

The ARAF was suspended from all international competitions by IAAF earlier this month after a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) report accused the Russian federation for conducting state-sponsored doping.

The matter was discussed at the 202nd IAAF Council Meeting in Monaco on Thursday, where the council decided that a definite array of norms will be finalised in the next three weeks which the ARAF needs to fulfil in order to regain the membership. The ARAF will be updated about the same by the end of this year.

IAAF has formed a five-man inspection team that will oversee ARAF’s actions as it tries to reclaim its status as an IAAF member. The ARAF has vowed to offer full support to the inspection team saying they will “cooperate fully and actively with the team".

Rune Andersen, an anti-doping expert will be the head of five-man inspection team and he will be accompanied by four-times Olympic silver medalist Frankie Fredericks as well.

Russia will not get to host the World Racing Walking Championships (Cheboksary, RUS) and the World Junior Championships (Kazan, RUS) in 2016 and athlete or any support staff from Russia may not compete in International competitions including World Athletics Series competitions and the Olympic Games.

The IAAF confirmed that a number of countries have registered their interest to host the aforementioned competitions, the bidding for which will start from next week and the winners of the bidding will be announced in January next year.

IAAF’s Council Member Stephanie Hightower said: “We know we need to rebuild trust with our fans and this will be a long journey.

“But we also need to show our athletes that we are serious about supporting clean athletes and will not tolerate cheating at any level.

“The whole system has failed the athletes. We need to better understand the triggers and flags that will enable us to identify problems early and fix them sooner.

“All my council colleagues are determined to repair the failures and rebuild trust amongst athletes and fans.”