More Russians banned from Rio Olympics, toll crosses 100

Wellington, July 27 (ANI):The number of banned Russians from next month's Rio Olympics passed 100 after nineteen more athletes of the country's rowers were barred from the Summer Games. According to Stuff.co.nz, at least 105 athletes have been expelled from the 387-strong Russian Olympic team in the wake of the damning and devastating reports into the embattled country's sport. While Russia avoided a blanket ban from the International Olympic Committee, around 68 track and field athletes were ruled out after their appeal against the ban was upheld at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week. Meanwhile, Russia has lost its several medal contenders to new International Olympic Council (IOC) rules, which ban the country from sending athletes who were found indulged in doping previously. 2012 London Olympic Champion Alexander Dyachenko was among five canoeists who were ruled out of the prestigious games after being named in a recent report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren which revealed that Russia orchestrated state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. McLaren in his report stated that Russia's secret service and top sporting authorities conspired to cover up widespread doping, substituting doping-tainted samples with clean ones during the Winter Games in Russia. Besides Dyachenko, there are four other canoeists that are added to the banned list namely Alexei Korovashkov , a 2012 bronze medallist in the C2 1000m event ,Andrei Kraitor, Elena Anyushina and Nataliya Podolskaya. Earlier, swimming's world governing body FINA also ruled out seven Russians including reigning world 100m breaststroke champion Yulia Efimova. Reflecting on the same, Simon Toulson, the International Canoe Federation's general secretary, said that the governing body would continue its strong zero-tolerance stance by removing all the athletes that violate its rules in anyway. The IOC had earlier also left the decision to individual sports federations to decide whether to accept Russians for the Rio Olympics. (ANI)