January 1st 2016 and March 27th 2016: this is the lapse of time IAAG gave to Russia to fix its broken and bashed anti-doping system, a period in which everything will be put under investigation from the watchful eye of a commission which will try to evaluate all the changes.
IAAF established five fundamental criteria to put Russia in par with WADA standards. Said criteria are based on basic principle which president Sebastian Coe defined “robust” nevertheless.
Number 1: Immediate corrective and disciplinar measurements
Identifiying, investigating, banning, sanctioning or escluding all the athletes, the staff (trainers, doctors and agents), administrators, members or other people who violated antidoping laws or who were somewhat implied in any kind of intentional complicity (assistance, encouragement, covering) in connection with the doping system identified by the Indipendent Commission (IC).
Number 2: To establish an operative antidoping frame, effective and functional
An operative frame in which notifications on possible violations can be quickly notified, analysed and monitored, putting an end to “omertà” among athletes themselved and this increasing the ethic level.
Number 3: Structural reforms and rules in order to discourage and reduce incentives to assume doping
The proposal is to criminalize the distribution and the traffic of forbidden substances according to Russian laws and to reconsider the Russian trainer’s contracts.
Number 4: To implement a strong, transparent and efficient antidoping tests programme
To prevent doping through deterrence and detection; to increase knowledge about antidoping tests among athletes, Russian trainers thanks to an aimed formation programme, but, above all, to increase transparency on tests programming to the track&field national team in order to allow adequate monitoring by IAAF and WADA.
Number 5: To grant the respect of the Codes in the future
This is maybe the most important points: no to recidivism.
WADA’s and IAAF’s satisfaction will be verified by inspection teams on a continuous base over a minimum set lapse of time.
At this moment, all the reconstruction work belongs to Russia, which has the demanding duty of giving a fair dose of dignity to itself and to World Track&Field.
We will talk about next year.
Photo: Reuters