Russia Vows To Appeal Four-year Ban From Major Sporting Competitions

Russia has announced that it would appeal the four-year ban from all major sporting competitions by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The country’s anti-doping agency, Rusada, stated this in a statement issued on Thursday.
Wada’s Executive Committee had last week banned Russia from all major sporting activities for four years due to non-compliance of doping violations.
The bans means Russia’s flag and anthem will not be allowed at events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics and football’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Read Also: Russia Banned From 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2022 Winter Olympics
But Rusada said a letter to Wada will be prepared on behalf of the president “in the next 10-15 days”.
“Then the ball will be in Wada’s court and the situation will be developing in the legal field,” added Alexander Ivlev, head of Rusada’s supervisory board.
Wada’s executive committee made the unanimous decision to impose the ban on Russia in a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, last week.
Rusada was declared non-compliant by Wada for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators in January 2019.
It had to hand over data to Wada as a condition of its controversial reinstatement in 2018 after a three-year suspension for its vast state-sponsored doping scandal.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at his annual end-of-the-year press conference on Thursday, said after the country had grounds to appeal against the decision.
However, athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be able to compete under a neutral flag.
A total of 168 Russian athletes competed under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.