Leadership of Russia's suspended federation resigns amid scandal

The executive committee ofRussia's suspendedathletics federation resigned on Monday and transferred its authority to a working group designed to lift the organisation out of a 4-1/2-year doping crisis, the federation said.

Russia'sathletics federation was suspended in 2015 after a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of mass doping among the country's track and field athletes.

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The federation was plunged into deeper crisis when its president and six other people were provisionally suspended last November for having provided false explanations and forged documents to justify three missed doping tests by high jumper Danil Lysenko.

WADA Executive Committee unanimously endorses four-year period of non-compliance for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency:https://t.co/K8QjAz7u4R — WADA (@wada_ama) December 9, 2019

The charges prompted WorldAthletics, the sport's global governing body, to suspend the federation's reinstatement procedure and barRussian track and field athletes from competing internationally as neutrals.

TheRussian federation's woes worsened last week when theAthletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the global body overseeing integrity in the sport, said the organisation had shown a "total lack of contrition" in its response to the Lysenko case and recommended that it be expelled from globalathletics.

The federation said on Monday that its leadership was resigning and all responsibilities, including liaising with WorldAthletics, the AIU and other global organisations, was being transferred to a working group run by theRussian Olympic Committee.

"The crisis inRussianathletics has already lasted five years and it is clear to everyone that is had dragged on," the federation quoted Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin as saying.

"Our common goal is to promptly normalise cooperation with WorldAthletics in order to restore our membership."

WorldAthletics said last week that the federation could avoid expulsion if its officials admitted to their involvement in the scandal.

Russiais also in the process of appealing a four-year ban from competing under its flag at major international events as punishment for having provided WADA with doctored laboratory data.