Athletics: Russia misses deadline to pay $5m doping fine

A sign at an entrance to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in Moscow. /VCG

Russia's suspended athletics federation said on Thursday it had missed a July 1 deadline to pay $5 million of a fine to World Athletics, jeopardizing the chances of its track and field athletes being able to compete internationally as neutrals.

"RUSAF (Russian Athletics) does not have the money to pay the fines imposed by World Athletics," the federation's president Yevgeny Yurchenko told TASS news agency.

Yurchenko said that World Athletics should take into account the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, which he said had further damaged the Russian track federation's finances.

Russia's Yevgenia Kononova competes in the women's high jump event at the 2018 Russian Winter athletics indoor meeting, February 4, 2018. /VCG

Meanwhile, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin told state news agencies on Wednesday that the federation had asked for more time to pay. He added that his ministry had written to World Athletics and the IOC asking them to ensure any sanctions for non-payment of the fine would not affect athletes' eligibility to compete.

World Athletics, the sport's global governing body, in March handed the federation a $10 million fine for breaching anti-doping rules.

World Athletics at the time reinstated the process by which Russian athletes could apply to compete internationally as neutrals after demonstrating that they train in a doping-free environment.

It said, however, that this process would again be suspended if half of the fine was not paid by July 1.

Russians with that neutral status won six medals at last year's world championships, including gold for Mariya Lasitskene in the high jump and for Anzhelika Sidorova in the pole vault.

Russian Olympic Committee building in Moscow, Russia /VCG

The federation was suspended in 2015 after a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of mass doping among track and field athletes in the country.

Russia's athletes missed the 2016 Olympic Games over the ban and were anticipating the Wednesday deadline with concerns over their participation in the Tokyo Games, now rescheduled for August 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Russia is also in the process of appealing a four-year ban on its athletes competing at major international sporting events under their flag as punishment for the alteration of laboratory data.

Its case will be heard by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in November.

(With input from agencies)