Russia Loses Appeal Against Paralympics Ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld Russia's exclusion from next month's Paralympics in Rio over its vast state-sponsored doping programme.

The Russian Paralympic Committee challenged the ban, which was imposed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), earlier this month in the wake of a damning report into allegations of doping.

However, the CAS ruled the decision was justified, meaning Russia will not be represented in the upcoming Games.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven described the cheating as a "'medals over morals' mentality that disgusts me" and "the complete corruption of the anti-doping system" when he first announced the ban.

But he has admitted he has sympathy for any clean Russian athletes who would be excluded from the Games, which runs from 7-18 September.

He said: "Today's decision underlines our strong belief that doping has absolutely no place in Paralympic sport, and further improves our ability to ensure fair competition and a level playing field for all Para athletes around the world.

"Although we are pleased with the decision, it is not a day for celebration and we have enormous sympathy for the Russian athletes who will now miss out on the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

"It is a sad day for the Paralympic movement, but we hope also a new beginning.

"We hope this decision acts as a catalyst for change in Russia and we can welcome the Russian Paralympic Committee back as a member safe in the knowledge that it is fulfilling its obligations to ensure fair competition for all."

The CAS ruling found that Russia did not provide any evidence which challenged the facts of the initial decision.

Craven's International Olympic Committee (IOC) counterpart Thomas Bach decided against such a tough stance, describing it as "the nuclear option".

As a result, Russia was able to send 278 athletes to Brazil for the Olympics after individual federations were left to rule on eligibility.

The later start date for the Paralympics allowed the IPC more time than the IOC to digest Richard McLaren's report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Mr McLaren was able to reveal even more cases from Paralympic sport than he listed in his preliminary report, and once the IPC had examined the Canadian's evidence, it was able to see that positive drug tests by 11 Russian athletes were covered up by the Moscow anti-doping laboratory at the behest of the Russian ministry of sport between 2012-15.

A further 18 samples were tampered with at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, where Russia won almost half of the gold medals on offer.