‘Russia should remain banned’

Russia's athletes should stay banned from international competition and not be allowed to take part in the Rio Games, says a leading Olympic official.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president John Coates has also branded Russia's anti-doping agency and athletics body as "rotten to the core".

Russia was suspended following accusations of state-sponsored doping.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) meets on Friday to discuss lifting the ban.

Russia was suspended from all track and field by the IAAF in November after an independent report from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) depicted a culture of widespread state-sponsored cheating by Russia's athletes, with even the secret services involved.

The country's sports minister Vitaly Mutko has since apologised for cheating athletes not caught by Russia's anti-doping systems but stopped short of admitting the scandal had been state sponsored.

A task force has been studying how much reform Russia has made, but a fresh Wada report, issued on Wednesday, made more damaging claims.

It said that Russian athletes have continued to fail drug tests in large numbers and that doping control officers have been stopped from carrying out their work.

Coates made his comments while attending a medal ceremony in Melbourne on Friday for Australian race walker Jared Tallent.

Tallent received the 50km walk gold medal from the 2012 Olympics a few months after drug cheat Russian Sergey Kirdyapkin was stripped of his title.

"Presenting an Olympic medal is always an honour, but more so on this occasion to be part of rectifying, in some way, the massive injustice perpetrated on Jared by a doping cheat and aided by a Russian Anti-Doping Agency and Russian Athletics Federation that were rotten to the core," said Coates.

"I expect that the IAAF will maintain the sanction against Russian athletics."

Canada's athletics federation has also backed a continuing ban of Russian track and field athletes.

"Athletics Canada feels strongly there is little evidence of a reversal in a systematic and deep rooted doping culture in Russian Athletics," said chief executive Rob Guy. "Therefore, there is no justification to grant re-inclusion."

Russia says it is being unfairly victimised, claiming other countries have fallen foul of the Wada code, such as Kenya and Ethiopia, but are free to compete.

Sports Minister Mutko has even said his country could take legal action if its athletics federation is not reinstated.

If the ban remains in place, the IOC could still decide to allow Russian athletes to compete at the Rio Olympics, which begin on 5 August.

IOC officials gather in Lausanne on Tuesday to discuss the matter, with some concerned that a suspension will punish innocent athletes.

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has already written an open letter to the IAAF making that very point.

"If some Russian athletes have failed doping tests, why must Russia's clean athletes face a ban?" she wrote.

"Why shouldn't we be able to compete in Rio against the clean athletes from other countries in Rio?"

British world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe recognises that view but has urged the IAAF to take a tough stand.

"No-one wants to see even one innocent athlete suffer in this," she said."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."