IAAF names Russia inspection team

[November 17, 2015]  (Reuters) - The world governing body of athletics (IAAF) has announced the five-person inspection team which will monitor the clean-up process in Russia, which has been suspended from the sport over widespread, state-sponsored doping.

Russia was barred on Friday after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report accused its state security services of colluding with the country's athletics federation (ARAF) to enable athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs with confidence that test results would be suppressed.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe has said that ARAF can only return to athletics once it had proved it had set up a new framework to stop doping.

Former Olympic sprinter Frankie Fredericks from Namibia was among the four IAAF council members who will join Norwegian anti-doping expert Rune Andersen, who had been named as the independent head of the team on Friday.

"I have devoted my life to clean sport and it’s on behalf of the innocent athletes who are Russia’s athletics future that we begin our task to ensure that fair and honest competition is guaranteed,” said Andersen in an IAAF statement.

The other members on the team will be Abby Hoffman from Canada, Anna Riccardi of Italy and Geoff Gardner from the Australian territory of Norfolk Island.

“The team...has an extraordinary amount of experience to ensure ARAF meets the criteria and is eligible to once again enter athletes into international competition,” said Coe.

(Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; editing by Justin Palmer)

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