Russia to appeal against Paralympics ban
Russia will appeal in the Swiss Federal Court tomorrow against the Court of Arbitration for Sport's (CAS) decision to uphold a blanket ban on their athletes from competing at next month's Rio Paralympics.
"The appeal has been launched in the Swiss court," the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) president Vladimir Lukin as saying on Friday.
Earlier this week, the Lausanne-based CAS, sport's highest tribunal, rejected an RPC appeal against the suspension that was handed out by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) because of a state-sponsored sports doping programme.
The Federal Court can overturn the CAS ruling only on the basis of a procedural mistake and not on the merits of the case.
The decision to exclude Russia's team means at least 260 competitors from the country are now set to miss the Sept 7-18 Paralympics.
The IPC went further than the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stopped short of a blanket ban on Russia at the Rio Olympics that ended last Sunday and left the decision instead in the hands of international sports federations.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Paralympic ban "cynical" and "immoral", but also said Moscow acknowledged mistakes it had made in tackling sports doping.
The country's track and field team were also excluded from the Olympics due to the sports doping programme.
Putin said the decision to bar Russian athletes, including those who had not tested positive for any banned substances, was a vivid manifestation "of how the humanistic foundations of sport and Olympism are shamelessly flouted by politics".
"The decision to disqualify our Paralympic team is outside the law, outside morality and outside humanity," he added.
"It is simply cynical to vent one's anger on those for whom sport has become the meaning of their life... I even feel pity for those taking such decisions because they must well understand that it is so demeaning for them." - Reuters.
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