Russians shocked over call for four-year sports ban over doping

Moscow : Russia's anti-doping chief said on Tuesday he expected the country to be barred from all sporting competition for four years, after a bombshell recommendation from the World Anti-Doping Agency that shocked Russian athletes.

WADA's Compliance Review Committee recommended the ban on Monday, accusing Moscow of falsifying laboratory data handed over to investigators.

It recommended Russia also face a four-year ban from staging or bidding for major international sporting events -- potentially putting Saint Petersburg's status as a venue for the Euro 2020 football tournament in jeopardy.

The committee's recommendation is set to go before WADA's Executive Committee at a meeting in Paris on December 9. Asked if he expected the recommendation to be upheld, RUSADA chief Yury Ganus told AFP: "That's the reality."

"We are plunging, for the next four years, into a new phase of Russia's doping crisis," Ganus said, pointing out that the ban would affect Russian athletes at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

"The most difficult and tragic thing is that our athletes have become hostages of the actions of our sports officials," he said.

The proposed sanctions are the latest chapter of a saga which began in 2015, when an independent WADA commission investigating allegations of Russian doping said it had found evidence of a vast state-sponsored system stretching back years.

Russian track and field athletes were barred from competing at the Rio Olympics in 2016 although Russians competing in other events were allowed to take part.

The ban was widened to include all events at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, though Russian competitors who could prove they were above suspicion were able to compete as neutrals under the Olympic flag.

Sporting officials in Moscow said on Tuesday that another ban would punish athletes who had nothing to do with historic doping claims.

"The news is simply shocking," said Varvara Barysheva, executive director of the Russian Speed Skating Union.