DRUGS IN SPORT

Ban on Russian athletes set to stay for Rio

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Lashmanova got a two-year ban for failing a drugs test
Lashmanova got a two-year ban for failing a drugs test
CAMERON SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES

Senior figures in international athletics now expect Russia’s track and field team to be banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after the latest developments in the country’s doping scandal, The Times can reveal.

Vitaly Mutko, The Russian sports minister, has issued an apology, admitting that the country has a problem with doping and saying that he is “very sorry” that cheating athletes were not caught sooner.

However, problems encountered by the IAAF’s task force in Russia have hardened attitudes of many on the organisation’s ruling council, according to three council members spoken to by The Times. They now expect the ban on the athletics team not to be lifted on June 17, which would mean that Russian athletics is excluded from Rio.

“The