Daily Times

LONDON: Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko has been provisionally suspended and stripped of his status as a neutral athlete following breach of anti-doping regulations, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Friday. Russia was banned by the IAAF in 2015 following an independent World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into allegations, still denied by Moscow, of state-sponsored doping. Some Russian athletes, however, were cleared to compete internationally by demonstrating to the IAAF that their training environment met the required anti-doping standards. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has charged and provisionally suspended Lysenko for the breaches. “The decision… has been made as a result of Mr Lysenko’s failure to provide whereabouts information as required under the IAAF Anti-Doping Rules and Regulations and to make himself available for out-of-competition testing by the AIU,” the IAAF said in a statement. Lysenko cannot compete at next week’s European Athletics Championships in Berlin, the governing body added.

The 21-year-old equalled the season’s best in high jump with a leap of 2.40 metres at the Monaco Diamond League meeting last month. Competing as a neutral athlete, Lysenko also won gold at the world indoor championships in Birmingham by defeating Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, who beat him to top the world championships in London last year. He was one of seven Russian athletes allowed by the IAAF to participate in Birmingham in March.

Published in Daily Times, August 4^th 2018.