CAS hearings on WADA rules against Russia may last until 2020 Olympics
CGTN
Russian Olympic Committee building is seen in Moscow, Russia after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) handed a four-year ban to Russia for major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup, December 9, 2019.

Russian Olympic Committee building is seen in Moscow, Russia after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) handed a four-year ban to Russia for major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup, December 9, 2019.

The court hearings with the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) on Russia's appeal against the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) sanctions may last until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), said on Tuesday, Russian news agency TASS reported.

"There are preconditions indicating that the whole story would be over either on the brink of the [2020] Olympics or after the Games," Pozdnyakov told journalists.

The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Games will be held from July 24 to August 9.

"Regulations do not state in particular the timeframe for WADA to turn to CAS," Pozdnyakov told journalists, adding that the previous experience shows that it should take the period of between one and two weeks.

Earlier this week, ROC and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) determined Swiss lawyer Claude Ramoni and Swiss-based legal firm Schellenberg Wittmer to represent their respective interests in the CAS process on WADA sanctions.

"It will take approximately three months after the appointment of CAS arbitrators before the verdict is announced," the ROC president mentioned on Tuesday.

According to TASS, on the same day, members of the ROC Executive Committee supported a decision of the RUSADA Supervisory Board to appeal against the WADA's case against Russia.

As the RUSADA Supervisory Board met on December 19, they disputed WADA's decision and recommended to take the case to CAS in Switzerland's Lausanne.

For more: Russia banned from Olympics for 4 years over doping scandal

(With input from agencies)