World high jump champ blasts Russian track officials

Three-time world high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene has blasted Russian track and field leaders after they were charged with obstructing an anti-doping investigation

Three-time world high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene blasted Russian track and field leaders Friday after they were charged with obstructing an anti-doping investigation using fake medical documents.

Lasitskene called for swift and radical reforms, and the removal of officials appointed by track federation president Dmitry Shlyakhtin. He was one of seven Russians charged and suspended Thursday by the Athletics Integrity Unit.

Shlyakhtin took office shortly after the federation was suspended from international competition over widespread doping. The suspension remains in place four years later.

“The new team, whose task was to take us out of this doping nightmare, has turned out no better than the old one. And in some ways worse,” Lasitskene wrote on Instagram.

“Shlyakhtin and his team must quit their posts immediately and never come back. And I will make sure this happens.”

Lasitskene has won two of her three world titles as a neutral athlete as a result of Russia’s suspension, which also caused her to miss the Olympics in 2016.

She called on Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov and the Russian Olympic Committee to put pressure on the federation to reform.

“Our track and field is in its death throes and we can’t procrastinate anymore,” she wrote. “We’ve lost four years already. Clean athletes are still defenseless and not sure they’ll be able to compete tomorrow.”

Shlyakhtin and four other senior officials are accused of obstructing the investigation into 2017 world championship silver medalist Danil Lysenko, who was facing a ban last year for failing to make himself available for drug testing.

Lysenko allegedly provided fake medical documents as an alibi with help from the officials. His coach has also been suspended.

Earlier, the Kremlin said the charges against Shlyakhtin and others won’t derail the country’s preparations to compete in next year’s Olympics.

“Undoubtedly, this (situation) requires attention from the sports authorities, and I’m sure they’re dealing with it,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.

“But I don’t see a direct connection with Russia’s participation in the Olympics here.”

With Shlyakhtin suspended, the federation is set to select an interim president at a board meeting Saturday.

Russia is also facing a World Anti-Doping Agency ruling next month on whether it manipulated data from a lab in Moscow.

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Ellingworth reported from Düsseldorf, Germany.

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