DOPING IN SPORT: Russia Banned From International Action After IAAF Council Members' 22-1 Vote

Yelena Isinbayeva urged the IAAF not to issue a blanket ban on Russian athletes

Russia has become the first country to be banned from international competition due to doping offences after a meeting of IAAF Council members on Friday night. Officials voted 22-1 in favour of the provisional sanction, which comes in the wakes of damning revelations of cover-ups by the World Anti-Doping Agency last week.

The move - which is almost certain to be made permanent by a disciplinary panel - will see Russia lose hosting rights to next year's Race Walking World Cup and the World Junior Championships, due to take place in Cheboksary and Kazan respectively.

But while, as it stands, the sanction also rules Russia out of competing in next year's Rio Olympic Games, early indications are that the Russians will accept their punishment and work towards fulfilling the criteria required in order to be reinstated in time.

Press Association report continues:

Sports minister Vitaly Mutko had told journalists in Moscow earlier on Friday: "Despite the fact we've created a serious anti-doping system, that we've created it according to the template of international organizations, [Vladimir Putin] has tasked us with doing everything and taking all necessary measures in cooperation with international organizations to create a system that will be trusted by the world,"

IAAF president Sebastian Coe described the events leading up to the vote as a "shameful wake-up call" and conceded authorities including the IAAF and WADA had to "look closely at ourselves."

Coe, who hosted the meeting via teleconference in London, said: "Today we have been dealing with the failure of ARAF (the Russian athletics federation) and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time.

"But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world.

"This has been a shameful wake-up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated.

"To this end, the IAAF, WADA, the member federations and athletes need to look closely at ourselves, our cultures and our processes to identify where failures exist and be tough in our determination to fix them and rebuild trust in our sport. There can be no more important focus for our sport."

Coe's bullish response comes at the end of a week in which his previous role as IAAF vice-president under the now-suspended Lamine Diack had been increasingly called into question.

Among Coe's critics was Great Britain World Championships captain Martyn Rooney, who accused Coe of being "naive" in his lack of knowledge of the alleged bribes being paid to Diack to cover up the positive tests.

Rooney told the BBC: "It is pretty disrespectful to believe the vice-president did not know what was going on within IAAF.

"That is his job and if he believes he did not know what was going on he has not been doing his job properly.

"Lord Coe is an icon for British athletes and has inspired generations but I felt he was a bit naive with his comments post the report."

WADA confirmed it had provisionally suspended the Moscow laboratory at the centre of the controversy and initiated the process which will assess the compliance of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA president Sir Craig Reedie said: "These are all necessary and powerful actions that will effect positive change for clean sport.

"We recognize however that this is just the tip of the iceberg and that, to truly tackle the scourge of doping, the anti-doping community must further improve the approach that has been employed to date; and, above all, the resources that are attributed to it."