CAS Reduces Disqualification Periods For Russia's Kondakova, Shkolina, Galitskaia, Ukhov

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on Wednesday final rulings following appeals against first-instance decisions issued by CAS on Russian athletes accused of violating the anti-doping rules

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2021) The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on Wednesday final rulings following appeals against first-instance decisions issued by CAS on Russian athletes accused of violating the anti-doping rules.

In beginning of February, CAS reported that 12 Russian athletes were found guilty of anti-doping rule violations following an investigation by the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) headed by Richard McLaren. The Russian side appealed their disqualifications.

The court made the decision to disqualify Olympic champions Natalya Antyukh and Andrey Silnov for four years and annul their competitive results from 2013 forward. The period of ineligibility starts from April 7.

At the same time, CAS reduced disqualification periods for several of the Russian athletes, including Yuliya Kondakova, Svetlana Shkolina, Ekaterina Galitskaia and Ivan Ukhov.

After consideration, the court cut ineligibility periods for Kondakova, Shkolina and Ukhov from four years to two years nine months, for Galitskaia to three years.

In 2015, WADA accused Russia of multiple doping violations and suspended the Moscow laboratory of the Russian National Anti-Doping Agency. The following year, Richard McLaren presented a two-part report that alleged the existence of a state-run doping program in Russia during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, after Rodchenkov, who fled to the US, said that the laboratory was involved in developing and distributing banned performance-enhancing substances for the Russian athletes.

Russia has since strongly refuted the allegations of the state-run doping program while admitting that Russian sports had some issues with doping abuse.