Russian cyclists demand IOC, WADA verify whistleblower's information

Russian cyclists have urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI) to set up an independent international commission for verification of the doping claims made by former chief of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center Grigory Rodchenkov.

Rodchenkov's claims featured in a WADA report that led to the Russian atheltics team getting banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Russia was also banned from the ongoing Rio Paralympics because of the severity of the report that said the country funded a state-sponsored doping programme, reports Tass.

"Our cyclists have sent a letter of the IOC, WADA and UCI where they demand the setting-up of an international commission to scrutinise Rodchenkov's claims cited in the report by Richard McClaren and exclusion of Rodchenkov's evidence from the report if the experts don't recognise the claims as grounded ones," sports lawyer Artyom Patsev, who represents the athletes, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

UCI did not admit Russian track cyclists Kirill Sveshnikov, Dmitry Strakhov and Dmitry Sokolov to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, as their named were mentioned in the WADA report.

The WADA report partly used Rodchenkov's revelations as the basis for his findings.

It is not exactly clear so far as to the misuse of what medicines the Russian cyclists were charged with but their letter to the three global sports agencies says McClaren claimed their doping test samples might contain erythropoietin.

Sokolov, Sveshnikov and Strakhov strongly deny these charges.

--IANS

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