Geraint Hughes looks at what the future holds for Russia after second damning report
By Geraint Hughes, Sky Sports News HQ
Last Updated: 09/12/16 8:18pm
The details and evidence written down in Professor Richard McLaren's 95-page report published last July and now a 38-page second report are astonishing.
However the remit of the 'Independent Person' Reports is concise and, as McLaren said in London on Friday: "I am an investigator, it is for others to decide on what sanctions are necessary."
That one sentence leaves us in a void. Professor McLaren was never asked, nor himself asked, to provide recommendations for what he describes as concrete evidence of state-sponsored doping within Russia.
So who acts upon his reports and what could they do?
The evidence collected sheds light on a period between 2011 to 2015, in particular the London 2012 Olympics, 2013 World Athletics Championships and Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, so the wrongdoing happened under the watch of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and of course the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
McLaren confirmed that all his findings have been passed to those bodies along with many of the sporting federations, and it is now for them to decide on how or if to sanction Russia.
The IAAF Council voted a week ago to continue their suspension of Russia's athletes, which began in November 2015 after scandal engulfed the sport's governing body. Under that ban, Russia's track and field team was barred from competing at Rio 2016 in its entirety.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe said on Friday: "The IAAF has been at the forefront of anti-doping since 1928 when we were the first international federation to prohibit doping in sport.
"We will continue to test intelligently, retest smartly, work collaboratively and seek swift justice. The independent Athletics Integrity Unit launching in April 2017 will give us, and clean athletes the world over, the strongest platform possible to deliver this."
The IOC, who did not ban Russian competitors from other sports at Rio 2016, instead decided to impose other sanctions back in July. Today in light of Professor McLaren's concluding report, the IOC's response came via a lengthy statement.
It read: "The IOC has already established two commissions to prepare the appropriate sanctions and measures:
"An Inquiry Commission chaired by the former President of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid, is addressing the 'institutional conspiracy across summer and winter sports athletes who participated with Russian officials within the Ministry of Sport and its infrastructure, such as (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) RUSADA, (Center of Sports Preparation of National Teams of Russia) CSP and the Moscow Laboratory along with the (Federal Security Service) FSB,' in particular with regard to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.
"A Disciplinary Commission, chaired by IOC Member Denis Oswald, is addressing the question of doping and manipulation of samples concerning the Russian athletes who participated in the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. In the context of this Disciplinary Commission, all the samples of all Russian athletes who participated in Sochi will be re-analysed. The re-analysis will be to establish whether there was doping or whether the samples themselves were manipulated.
"The IOC will re-analyse all 254 urine samples collected from Russian athletes at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, since Prof. McLaren's mandate did not include a full re-analysis of all these samples. All 63 blood samples collected from Russian athletes at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 have already been re-analysed by the IOC in cooperation with Prof. McLaren, and were all negative.
"The IOC has extended the mandate of the Oswald Commission to examine all samples collected from Russian athletes during the Olympic Games London 2012, following the findings of today's completed IP Report.
"Re-analysis of some of these samples is already underway following intelligence provided by Prof. McLaren to the IOC. Eleven Russian athletes have already been sanctioned by the IOC as a result of the IOC's own re-analysis programme, which began prior to the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and is ongoing."
The Russian Sports Ministry has, however, denied that the country had any state-sponsored doping system.
The ministry says it will examine McLaren's report before commenting in detail but that it insists on "the absence of a state program of support for doping sport" and "continues to fight doping with a position of zero tolerance".
It is understandably complicated for fans and spectators of sport to know what will happen next.
The phrase the "dust needs to settle" was heard more than once after Professor McLaren had delivered his final report.
How and if Russia will be further sanctioned and also a more considered Russian response may take some time to become clear.
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