Archiv » the Russian doping scandal

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Latest on the Rio Games (all times local to Rio de Janeiro):6:45 p.m.The U.S. added long jumper Michael Hartfield to its track team after Marquis Dendy withdrew with a leg injury.Hartfield finished fifth at U.S. Olympic trials earlier this month and was next in line for a spot because he had reached an Olympic qualifying standard earlier in the year.Hartfield is ranked sixth in the world this year.---6:15 p.m.Australian Olympic team members have returned to their building at the Rio Olympic Athletes Village after smoke from a small fire in the basement prompted an evacuation.According to a team spokesman, between 50-60 athletes and staff had to leave the building for about 20 minutes. A spokesman for the Rio organizing committee said cardboard caught fire in the basement area.This comes after a tension-filled week in which Australia refused to occupy its building, citing gas and plumbing leaks, electrical shorts, and general filth. At least a dozen other teams also complained of problems that affected about 400 of the 3,600 rooms in the sprawling compound.The Australia delegation finally moved in on Wednesday, three days after the official opening on Sunday.---5 p.m.U.S. runner Allyson Felix says she expects to be close to 100 percent when 400-meter qualifying begins on August 13th.Felix, who hurt her right ankle during training this spring, was at less than 100 percent earlier this month when she ran in the U.S. Olympic trials.She failed to qualify for her favorite race, the 200 meters, and will not have a chance to defend her Olympic title at that distance.At the U.S. training camp on Friday, Felix said she doesnt think shell ever get past the disappointment of not getting to go for the 200-400 double, but shes focused on the task at hand. The 400-meter finals are set for Aug. 15.---Brazils federal government has severed its contract with a security firm that was supposed to operate x-ray machines during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes says that the Artel company didnt deliver the 3,400 workers supposed to perform the task and will be replaced by retired policemen -- who are still to be trained.Moraes said that Artel will be sued for not delivering and that the contract was worth about $6 million. The company didnt comment on the decision.There are expected to be 85,000 military personnel and police across the city, double the number on the streets in London in 2012. Most will be at sporting venues and tourist landmarks.---3:50 p.m.The International Olympic Committee has set up a special unit to monitor any illegal betting, match-fixing or other illegal activity during the games in Rio de Janeiro.The IOC says the Joint Integrity Intelligence Unit will work with experts from the Rio organizing committee in the athletes village and behind the scenes at the games. An existing betting monitoring system has also been reinforced.The IOC says the integrity unit will be responsible for the prevention, monitoring and assessment of any unethical activity related to the games. The program will be supported by Brazils Department of Federal Police, the national secretariat for security at major events, and Interpol.The IOCs chief ethics and compliance officer, Paquerette Girard Zappelli, says we will rely on the Brazilian authorities and their jurisdiction for criminal and security matters.---3:20 p.m.The International Weightlifting Federation has banned the Russian federation and all its weightlifters from the Rio Olympics.The IWF says that the multiple cases of doping by Russian weightlifters have seriously damaged the integrity of the sport. The eight Russian Olympic spots have been offered to other countries.The IWF said the doping results produced by Russian weightlifters are extremely shocking and disappointing.---10:38 a.m.Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva says she has been refused after pleading with the IAAF to allow her to compete at the Rio Olympics.Isinbayeva was excluded as part of the IAAFs ban on the Russian track and field team, which was upheld last week at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.She says in an Instagram post that she had filed an application with the IAAF as an individual to have her case reconsidered, but they didnt make an exception for me.Says Isinbayeva: The miracle didnt happen.The 34-year-old Isinbayeva has previously said she plans to retire if she does not go to the Olympics, but did not comment on that in her post.---10:15 a.m.Russia is to launch a last-ditch legal bid to reinstate 19 of its rowers who were banned from the Rio Olympics because of insufficient drug testing.Russian Rowing Federation head Veniamin But tells The Associated Press by telephone that he plans to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport next week to try to overturn the ruling from World Rowing.The 19 were excluded because World Rowing said they had not been tested often enough by reliable international authorities.Tests conducted by the Russian anti-doping agency, which is suspended following repeated allegations of cover-ups, are not considered valid for Olympic purposes.But adds that his rowers are training and are ready to travel to Rio at short notice if they win their case.---9:40 a.m.French President Francois Hollande is flying out to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next week to help support Paris with its Olympic bid.The Elysee palace says that Hollande will be in Rio on Thursday, where he will meet with members of the Paris 2024 bid committee and have lunch with French athletes in the Olympic village.After meeting in the afternoon with IOC members Cheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al-Sabah, Patrick Hickey and John Coates -- who is the IOCs vice president -- he will attend a dinner with IOC president Thomas Bach.Hollande will meet privately with Bach on Friday morning and then take part in a Paris 2024 news conference.The other bidders for 2024 are Budapest, Hungary; Los Angeles; and Rome.The IOC will select the host city in September 2017.---8:40 a.m.Three-time Olympic canoeing champion Katalin Kovacs of Hungary is retiring after failing to qualify for the Rio Olympics.Kovacs, who also won 40 medals in world championships, including 30 golds, had a daughter in 2014 and said she wanted to spend more time with her family.The 40-year-old Kovacs won the K-2 500 with Natasa Janics at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and was part of Hungarys victorious K-4 500 crew at the 2012 London Games. She also won five silver medals, including at least one in every Olympics between 2000 and 2012.Kovacs said Friday that over the past months it became clear to me that my dear family is first in my heart, not canoeing.---6:29 a.m.Russias Sports Minister says 272 of the countrys athletes have received approval from international sports federations to compete at the Rio Olympics under new restrictions imposed due to the Russian doping scandal.Vitaly Mutko tells Russian media that as of today, 272 athletes have definitely been admitted to the Olympics, adding that a final figure would be available Saturday.Russia had originally planned to send a 387-person team, but that has steadily been reduced as federations removed those who had previously served doping bans and those implicated in World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLarens report alleging a massive cover-up of failed drug tests.Russias largest losses are in track and field, with 67 of 68 athletes barred, while the situation remains unclear in some sports, notably weightlifting and boxing.---5:35 a.m.The sports chief of the Russian Olympic team in Rio says Russian athletes who arrived in Rio early are under scrutiny of WADA doping agents.Igor Kazikov told state-owned television channel on Friday that every member of the team who had arrived by Thursday has already been tested for doping at least once.I can see that every morning doping agents come and take their samples, Kazikov said. He added, however, that he was not sure how that compares to how often athletes from other countries get tested.---5:31 a.m.Russia says its taekwondo team has been approved to compete at the Rio Olympics against the backdrop of the countrys doping scandal.Under International Olympic Committee rules introduced last week following accusations of a vast state-sponsored doping cover-up, Russian athletes must be individually approved by international sports federations and rejected if they previously were banned for doping offenses or implicated in the alleged cover-up.Anatoly Terekhov, head of the Russian Taekwondo Union, says all Russians entered for taekwondo in Rio have been approved by the World Taekwondo Federation, in comments to Russian agency R-Sport.Terekhov says he received a letter from the WTF and that we were told that all three of our athletes have officially been admitted to compete in the Olympic Games. Discount Nike Free Australia . 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"Martyn is a highly-respected coach with experience at the top levels in England," said Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson. Cheap Nike Free Australia Sale .C. United of Major League Soccer. United chose the defender in the second round of the 2013 MLS re-entry draft. MARSEILLE, France -- If Cristiano Ronaldo is to send Portugal to the semifinals and match Michel Platinis all-time European Championship scoring record, hell have to find a way through a Poland defense thats among the toughest of the tournament.Ronaldo has scored eight goals from four championships, one shy of Platinis nine, though hes been on inconsistent form in Platinis home country.Frustrated and angry in Portugals opening draws with Iceland and Austria, Ronaldo has shown flashes of his true talent since then, scoring two goals in a 3-3 draw with Hungary and setting up Ricardo Quaresmas winner against Croatia in the round of 16.Polands defense looks formidable after conceding just a single goal in four games. And even that needed a stroke of genius, in the form of Xherdan Shaqiris spectacular overhead kick for Switzerland in the last 16.Despite a lack of well-known defenders -- the first-choice center-backs play for Torino and Legia Warsaw -- the Poles have made a virtue of scraping through games, with two 1-0 wins and a victory on penalties against the Swiss. They also neutralized the attacking play of World Cup champion Germany in a 0-0 draw in the group stage.Just like his great rival Lionel Messi, Ronaldo has never won a major title with his country. On what is widely considered the easier side of the draw, with a potential semifinal against Wales or Belgium, this could be his year.While Portugal beat a solid Croatia team 1-0, it didnt register a single shot on target until deep into extra time. Winning ugly is finee for center-back Jose Fonte, just as long as Portugal is winning.ddddddddddddIt doesnt matter if you play beautiful or ugly football, he said Monday. You have to win and I want to win. If we have to play badly every game and win, Ill do it.If the attack has stuttered, Portugals defense is also a concern with four goals conceded, the joint-worst of any team in the quarterfinals, along with Iceland.The chaotic 3-3 draw with Hungary in the last group game prompted a rethink by coach Fernando Santos, who brought in the Southampton duo of Fonte and right-back Cedric for the last 16, in place of Ricardo Carvalho and Vierinha, who had started all three group games.Portugal also has injury concerns, as left-back Raphael Guerreiro and midfielders Jose Moutinho and Andre Gomes are all doubtful.Polands top scorer in qualifying, Robert Lewandowski, remains scoreless in the tournament, but hes often been a sacrificial element in Polands strategy, keeping defenses occupied to create space for winger Jakub Blaszczykowski or second striker Arkadiusz Milik. However, the resulting chances have often been wasted, especially by Milik.As Poland bids to reach its first tournament semifinal since the 1982 World Cup, Lukasz Fabianski will continue to deputize for injured first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who has missed the last three games with a thigh injury.---James Ellingworth contributed from Nice, France. ' ' '