Athletics doping: IAAF names team to inspect Russian reforms

Russia might not take part at next year's Olympic Games in Rio

Ex-Olympic sprinter Frankie Fredericks is part of a five-man team that will monitor Russia's athletics federation as it bids to regain IAAF membership.

Russia was provisionally suspended by the sport's governing body after a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report alleged "state-sponsored doping".

Anti-doping expert Rune Andersen will lead the team that includes four-times Olympic silver medallist Fredericks.

IAAF president Lord Coe said: "The inspection team has great experience."

Namibian Fredericks, 48, came second in the 100m and 200m at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and is also a former world champion.

Andersen, who served as chief of anti-doping at the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, will also be joined by IAAF council members Abby Hoffman, Anna Riccardi and Geoff Gardner.

Wada is also meeting in Colorado Springs on Tuesday and Wednesday where the future of Russia's anti-doping agency, Rusada, will be discussed.

Dick Pound, chairman of Wada's investigation into doping among Russian athletes, believes Coe is the right man to lead the IAAF's attempts to clean up the sport.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "His ascension to the presidency gives the IAAF a unique opportunity it has not had for many years to tackle these issues.

"One of the issues that has to be addressed is how do you keep this from ever happening again.

"I don't think any sport is free of country and no country can stand up and say we are clear of doping."

"After consultation with Wada, we will set the verification criteria," Coe added.

"The five-person inspection team, led by renowned anti-doping expert Rune Andersen, has an extraordinary amount of experience to ensure Araf [Russia's athletics federation] meets the criteria and is eligible to once again enter athletes into international competition."

Meanwhile, Russian sprinter Alexander Zverev, who won silver at 2012 Paralympics in London, has been suspended for nine months for an anti-doping rule violation.

He returned an adverse analytical finding for Cannabinoids in a urine sample provided on 20 June 2015 after he had competed at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Berlin, Germany.