Yahoo Sport 
Russia will have no presence at World Para Athletics Championships and could face Winter Paralympics ban
There will be no Russian team at the World Para Athletics Championships in London unless “something dramatically changes” in the next few weeks, the International Paralympic Committee confirmed on Monday.
The nation which orchestrated sport’s biggest ever drugs scandal was also given until September to convince an IPC task force it had changed its ways or else risk missing next year’s Winter Paralympics.
The governing body issued the ultimatum amid Russia’s ongoing failure to comply with reinstatement criteria imposed upon the country, which was thrown out of last summer’s Paralympics after being found guilty of state-sponsored doping.
Speaking at a press conference in London, IPC president Sir Philip Craven said: “With 291 days to go until Pyeongchang 2018, there is not a moment to waste.
“The IPC task force will next update the IPC governing board in September and if the obligations have not been fully met by then, it will be very difficult for the RPC [Russian Paralympic Committee] to have its suspension lifted in time to enter its athletes into the Paralympic Winter Games.
“Clearly, with this timeline in mind, unless something dramatic changes in the next few weeks, the Russian Paralympic Committee, due to its ongoing suspension, will not be able to enter its athletes into the London 2017 World Para Athletics Championships.”
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Those championships take place at the London Stadium from July 14-23, with the IAAF World Championships starting at the same venue on August 4.
The Daily Telegraph revealed in February that Russia was on the brink of being expelled from the biggest event at the London 2012 centrepiece since the Paralympic Games five years earlier, an event the country was accused in 2015 of having sabotaged.
The RPC was banned in August after an investigation by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency found evidence of a years-long plot by Russia to cover-up drug-taking, including at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where it topped the medal table.
Among the IPC’s reinstatement criteria is a requirement for the rogue nation to acknowledge the truth of the McLaren report and for the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to be reinstated by Wada, something that may not occur until November.
The chair of the IPC task force, former UK Anti-Doping chief executive Andy Parkinson, acknowledged progress had been made in other areas but warned: “Unless and until these problems are fully addressed, the task force is of the view that there can be no meaningful change in culture, and it would be almost impossible for Russian Para athletes to return to IPC-sanctioned competitions without jeopardising the integrity of those competitions.”
Craven, who back in August accused Russia of having a “medals over morals mentality”, added: “Ultimately, Russia has to restore confidence in the wider sporting world.
“The RPC and Russian authorities need to build trust in their actions and prove to us all that, from now on, sport really is about morals over medals and not the other way round.”
