World Athletics president Sebastian Coe welcomes roadmap for Russian athletics reintegration

Paris: World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Monday a roadmap for Russia’s reintegration to the sport was just the beginning of a long journey aimed at “rebuilding trust”. A taskforce of independent experts have devised a plan for the reinstatement of Russian membership of World Athletics and the plan was recommended to the World Athletics Council last week, the sport’s governing body announced Monday. Russian athletics has been in crisis since 2015 when its federation was suspended for repeated doping scandals, and its athletes continue to miss international events. The taskforce and the Russian federation (RusAF) described the proposals as “a detailed roadmap to rebuild trust”. The plan is said to be about embedding in Russian athletics the deep-rooted change in culture that the World Athletics Council has been demanding for the past five years. “I don’t think a week has gone by during my presidency when I have not been answering questions about Russia,” Coe said. “I am extremely grateful to the taskforce. “This is not the end but the beginning of a long journey, with an incredible amount of work for RusAF to do to rebuild trust.” Russia’s initial ban from international sport was halved to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last December.