Russia accepts revision of athletes' disqualification by CAS

The All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) said it has no objection regarding the revision of the disqualification of six of their athletes by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"The decision is final and unappealable. The ARAF accepts it for enforcement. The ARAF is confident that the resolute fight against doping in the national field and track athletics will yield its results and Russians will be able to return to the world family of athletics," the ARAF said in a statement on Thursday, reports Xinhua.

The CAS earlier upheld six appeals filed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) against Russian athletes for anti-doping rules violations. In CAS' press release, all results achieved by the six athletes from the date of their first abnormal sample to the date they accepted a provisional suspension should be disqualified.

The athletes are five race walkers Sergey Kirdyapkin, Sergey Bakulin, Valeriy Borchin, Vladimir Kanaikin and Olga Kaniskina as well as a middle-distance runner Yuliya Zaripova.

All six had results disqualified for longer periods with all their titles and medals won between 2009 and 2013 stripped, including one gold and one silver of the 2012 London Olympics. Moreover, Kanaikin's life ban ordered by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was annulled and replaced by an eight-year ban.

The RUSADA on January 30, 2015, announced its decisions about the disqualification of the six athletes based on irregularities observed in the athletes' biological passports. Yet decisions by the Russian side were questioned by the IAAF as "selective disqualification" of the suspension periods of the six involved.

On March 25, 2015, the IAAF filed an appeal with the CAS in Lausanne about the issue. According to the IAAF, RUSADA had incorrectly applied the applicable anti-doping rules adopted by the IAAF to implement the provision of the World Anti-Doping Code with respect to the disqualification of competitive results.