IOC puts back decision of Russia Rio Games ban

Governing body says it will study legal options before deciding

LAUSANNE, July 19, (AFP): The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it will study “legal options” before deciding whether to ban Russia from the Rio Games over its state-run doping programme.

But Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was barred from attending the Games and the IOC ordered a disciplinary commission to look into his ministry’s role in what a report called a “state-dictated failsafe system” if drug cheating.

The IOC executive held emergency talks Tuesday on a bombshell inquiry commissioned by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) into the state doping at the Sochi Winter Olympics and other major events in Russia.

The IOC said it would not give backing to any international events in Russia because of the scandal but had to put back a decision on whether to bar Russia from the Rio Games which start August 5.

WADA has called for Russia to be banned from international competition. And IOC president Thomas Bach called the doping scandal a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games.”

But the IOC said it “will explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes for the Olympic Games 2016 versus the right to individual justice.”

The Olympic leadership said it will also have to wait for a Court of Arbitration for Sports decision ruling Thursday RIO DE JANEIRO, July 19, (AFP): Exactly 50 percent of Brazilians oppose hosting the Olympics in Rio in less than three weeks, a poll released Tuesday found.

The Datafolha poll published in Folha newspaper showed the number of Brazilians unhappy with the hosting of the Olympics has doubled since a similar poll was conducted three years ago.

The Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, starting August 5, will be the first held in South America.

Brazil is reeling from its worst recession in decades, a corruption scandal involving many in the political elite, and an impeachment battle likely to see suspended president Dilma Rousseff forced from office. on an appeal by 68 Russian athletes against an IAAF ban from competition.

Lead investigator Richard McLaren said Monday he had conclusive evidence that the four year doping scheme was directed by the sports ministry with the FSB intelligence agency.

The IOC said it will not grant any Rio accreditation “to any official of the Russian Ministry of Sport or any person implicated in the (McLaren) report.”

That includes Mutko, who has denied that the government directed the doping programme.

Mutko has already suspended five top deputies, including his number two Yury Nagornykh, described as the point man for running the cheating scheme.

The IOC is now racing against the clock to reach a final position on the status of Russian athletes in Rio.

WADA, the German Olympic committee and anti-doping bodies across the globe have backed calls for Russia’s outright ban from Rio.

That would be the first time a country has been banned from an Olympic Games over doping.

But the Association of Summer Olympic Federations and other groups have urged caution, pointing to the ethical issues of punishing athletes who have never failed drug tests.

The International Association of Athletics Federations has already barred Russian track and field contenders from Rio after a inquiry into widespread statesponsored doping in the sport.

The CAS will rule Thursday on whether the IAAF had grounds to imstrikeouts pose a blanket ban on a national federation, since such a suspension inevitably punished athletes with no positive drug test on their record.

The two sides met with CAS judges in Geneva on Thursday.

IOC executives also ordered a reanalysis of all samples by Russian athletes taken at the 2014 Winter Olympics, vowing punishment against anyone who helped competitors cheat.

Because the Sochi Games are so tainted, the IOC said it would not give backing to any international sports events in Russia. It called on “all International Olympic Winter Sports Federations to freeze their preparations for major events in Russia.”

This includes world championships and World Cups, the IOC said, calling or winter federations “to actively look for alternative organisers.”

The Russian Olympic Committee has acknowledged the severity of the allegations but insisted that collective punishment against possibly clean athletes would leave “the integrity of the Olympic Movement...endangered.”

Senior sports and political leaders in Moscow have also questioned the credibility of McLaren’s key witness, the former boss of Russia’s anti-doping lab Grigory Rodchenkov, who admits he was central to the cheating scheme.

Rodchenkov is currently in hiding in the United States and is wanted by Russia.

McLaren said his team uncovered forensic evidence that proved Rodchenkov’s claims that Moscow set up a “failsafe” cheating system following the country’s poor performance at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver.

In Seattle, Adam Lind hit a three-run pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning to give the Mariners an improbable comeback victory over the White Sox, handing Chicago its fifth consecutive loss and wasting a dominant performance by Chris Sale. Seattle, which had managed just one hit in eight innings off Sale, rallied against closer David Robertson (0-2), who had recorded 13 straight save opportunities.

Sale, bidding to become the first 15game winner in the majors, allowed just a first-inning single en route to eight scoreless innings. David Rollins (1-0) pitched the ninth inning for the win.

In Anaheim, California, Mike Trout hit a three-run homer to help the Angels rally from four runs down and beat the Rangers.

With the score tied 5-5 in the seventh, Jeff Bandy was hit by a pitch from Keone Kela (1-1) to start the bottom of the inning and moved to third on Simmons’ double. One out later, Calhoun hit a fielder’s choice to second, driving in Bandy with the go-ahead run, and Trout followed with his homer over the left-field fence. J.C. Ramirez (2-3) pitched 1-2/3 innings for the win, and Cam Bedrosian got the last three outs.

In Denver, Trevor Story hit a tworun homer in the fifth while Colorado’s bullpen stranded the tying run on third in two straight innings as the Rockies held off Tampa Bay 7-4, extending the Rays’ road skid to 11 in a row.

Story’s 22nd homer of the season gave the Rockies a 5-1 lead. The bullpen made it hold up to make a winner out of Tyler Anderson (2-3), who ran into trouble in the seventh and surrendered three of his four runs.

MLB Scoreboard – See Page 38

Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo watches his three-run home run off New York Mets’ Steven Matz during the third inning of a baseball game on July 18 in Chicago. Kris Bryant and Javier Baez also scored on the play.

(AP)