With Seb Coe under increasing pressure in his job at the IAAF this week that athletics governing body have made a big statement about Russia's doping by confirming the continued ban on Russian athletes.
An investigation by WADA at the end of last year saw the International Association of Athletics Federation ban Russia and its athletes from competing at major events unless they complied with strict drug laws.
However the world anti drug body confirmed earlier this week that Russian athletes had continued to fail drugs testing and that anti-doping officers had been met by resistance whilst trying to do their jobs and that looks like that news has meant that the country's athletes won't be competing in Rio later this summer.
The initial claims implicated the entire athletics programme as being corrupt and went as far up as Russian secret service and WADA's investigation was the biggest of its kind in the history of the sport and though there has always been a suggestion of drugs it has never been confirmed on such a scale.
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Today's ban, which was confirmed by a Russian news agency ahead of the IAAF's statement, means that there is very little chance of athletes from the country who came second to USA in the athletics medal table in 2012 competing in this year's Olympics. Their only chance is if the IOC, who meet next week, decide they can compete however the Olympic committee's vice president claimed that Russia's in house anti-doping agency was "rotten to the core"
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Russia would definitely react to the decision and will no doubt appeal, which could go as far as the Court of Arbitration for Sport especially if the IOC do enforce the ban.
28 time world record pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva wrote an open letter to the IAAF after the first ban saying: "If some Russian athletes have failed doping tests, why must Russia's clean athletes face a ban? Why shouldn't we be able to compete in Rio against the clean athletes from other countries in Rio?"
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(h/t Independent)
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