Russia's Rio hopes at stake as IAAF votes

VIENNA - Hot on the heels of another damning report on Russian doping, the sporting superpower will discover on Friday whether its ban from athletics will be lifted, allowing a return to competition in time to take part in the Rio Olympics. The vote, by the Council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Vienna, should in theory be decisive but the International Olympic Committee (IOC), concerned about innocent athletes being punished, has said it might yet overrule when it meets the following week. "No one wants to see even one innocent athlete suffer in this, but such blatant disregard for the rules of our sport and the concept of fair play should receive a strong message that it will not be tolerated," British world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe told Reuters on Thursday. Russia was suspended from all track and field by the (IAAF) in November after an independent report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed widespread state-sponsored doping. A task force has been studying how much reform Russia has made, but any thoughts that the country may have had about winning over doubters were probably dashed on Wednesday when WADA released another report containing extraordinary accounts of the lengths some athletes have gone to avoid being tested. It said that Russian athletes have continued to fail drug tests in large numbers and obstruct doping control officers in the months when they are supposed to be showing there has been a change of culture in their approach to the problem. "Whether or not the IOC choose to punish and investigate further (since clearly this was never limited to track and field but rather all Russian sport) I feel the IAAF has to be strong on this," Radcliffe said in an email after the WADA report. -Reuters