Doping scandal: Russia almost guaranteed to miss World Indoor Championships

The IAAF inspection team will begin its investigation into Russia by 1 January and report on its findings in March.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe has given no assurances they will be eligible to compete at the Olympics (Getty Images)

Russian athletes look certain to miss the World Indoor Championships in March and the IAAF president Sebastian Coe has given no assurances they will be eligible to compete at the Olympics.

Yesterday it was announced that the International Association of Athletics Federations inspection team, led by anti-doping expert Rune Andersen, would begin its investigation into Russia by 1 January and report its findings to the IAAF council on 27 March.

With the World Indoors due to begin in Portland in the United States on 17 March, a Russian team will almost certainly be absent. And, despite the stance of International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach being that Russia would return in time for next year’s Rio Games, Coe gave no such assurances.

“For the protection of all clean athletes there cannot be any time frame for Araf’s [the Russian federation] return until we are assured all criteria have been met and will continue to be met forever,” he said.

Andersen and his team will be tasked with ensuring that Araf has got its house in order and that the state-sponsored doping programme unveiled in Geneva last week has been eradicated.

Coe said the inspection needed to be “robust” or else “the process will fail”, adding: “Repeating past failings, which have brought Araf to their current position, is not an option. To succeed, this process must guarantee a level playing field and thereby re-establish confidence in the integrity of competition.”

Andersen will be joined in the task by four IAAF council members, including former world 200m champion Frankie Fredericks. Russian athletes were provisionally banned last Friday for an indefinite period of time in the wake of the damning evidence of doping from the commission report.