Sport Athletics Abbreviation ARAF Regional affiliation EAA | Jurisdiction Federation Affiliation IAAF (Suspended) Headquarters Moscow, Russia | |
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The All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF; Russian: Всероссийская федерация лёгкой атлетики, ВФЛА) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in Russia.
Contents
- Affiliations and associations
- National records
- Doping allegations
- 2016 Summer Olympics Qualified athletes denied participation by IAAF
- References
Its current president is Vadim Zelichenok.
Affiliations and associations
ARAF is the national member federation for Russia in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the European Athletics Association (EAA). Presently, due to the issues discussed below, its participation in both organisations is provisionally suspended.
National records
ARAF maintains the Russian records in athletics.
Doping allegations
In December 2014, the German broadcaster ARD made wide-ranging allegations of doping in Russian athletics and high-level cover-ups of this. Alleging state involvement in systematic cheating, the documentary accused Russia of an "East German-style" doping programme. These resulted in then ARAF President Valentin Balakhnichev's resignation as Treasurer of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
In response to this, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commissioned an investigation, the report of which was published on 9 November 2015. The 323-page document, described as "damning" by The Guardian, reported widespread doping and large-scale cover ups by the authorities. It recommended that ARAF be declared non-compliant with respect to the World Anti-Doping Code, and recommended that the International Olympic Committee not accept any entries from ARAF until compliance was reached. On 13 November, the IAAF council overwhelmingly voted 22–1 in favour of prohibiting Russia from world sports events with immediate effect. Under other penalties against the ARAF, Russia has been also prohibited from hosting the 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary) and 2016 World Junior Championships (Kazan), and ARAF must entrust doping cases to Court of Arbitration for Sport.
ARAF accepted the indefinite IAAF suspension and did not request a hearing. ARAF's efforts towards regaining full IAAF membership will be monitored by a five-person IAAF team.
On June 21, 2016 the International Olympic Committee affirmed the decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations, banning all of the All-Russia Athletic Federation athletes from competing in 2016 Olympics.