Athletics doping scandal: Russia federation accepts IAAF ban

Image source, AFP

Image caption, Wada says Russia's Mariya Savinova, who won 800m gold at the London Olympics, should be given a lifetime ban

Russia's athletics federation has accepted its ban from international competition without requesting a hearing, the IAAF has confirmed.

The IAAF voted to suspend Russia's federation (Araf) on 13 November after the publication of an independent World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report that alleged "state-sponsored doping".

An inspection team will monitor Araf as it bids to regain its IAAF membership.

Araf confirmed it will cooperate "fully and actively with the team".

Anti-doping expert Rune Andersen will lead the five-man inspection team that includes four-times Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks.

The IAAF, the sport's governing body, is holding a meeting in Monaco on Thursday to determine the measures Russia needs to implement to be reinstated to world athletics.

The IAAF is also awaiting the findings of a report into the conduct of its officials, which the Wada commission chairman Dick Pound said has a "wow factor".

That section of the report, likely to be released in January, has been held back after a French police investigation began earlier this month into former IAAF president Lamine Diack and former head of anti-doping Gabriel Dolle.