Doping scandal: IAAF bans Diack’s son, Russian officials

Former IAAF consultant, Papa Massata Diack and Russian officials, Valentin Balakhnichev and Alexei Melnikov were last month charged with multiple breaches of anti-doping rules relating to Russian athlete Liliya Shobukhova.

Ex-IAAF anti-doping director Gabriel Dolle has been banned for five years.

IAAF president Lord Coe said the bans “could not send a stronger message”.

Diack and Balakhnichev, a former Russian athletic federation president and IAAF treasurer, face fines of £17,000 while Russian coach Melnikov could be fined £10,000.

They had been charged in relation to the payment of about £435,000 that marathon runner Shobukhova allegedly made to have her doping violations covered up.

“The head of a national federation, the senior coach of a major national team and a marketing consultant for the IAAF conspired together (and, it may yet be proven with others too) to conceal for more than three years anti-doping violations by an athlete at what appeared to be the highest pinnacle of her sport,” the IAAF’s ethics commission’s findings state.

“All three compounded the vice of what they did by conspiring to extort what were in substance bribes from Liliya Shobukhova by acts of blackmail.

“They acted dishonestly and corruptly and did unprecedented damage to the sport of track and field which, by their actions, they have brought into serious disrepute.”

Shobukhova’s 38-month ban from track and field was reduced by seven months after she turned whistleblower for the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

Russia have been banned from international athletics competition after a report by Wada’s independent commission alleged the country was guilty of “state-sponsored doping”.

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