Mara Yamauchi: 'Doping findings in Russian athletics is good for the sport'

British long-distance runner Mara Yamauchi has claimed that the doping scandal surrounding Russian athletics will end up being "good for the sport".

A World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission has called for Russia to be banned from athletics competition due to widespread doping, cover-ups and extortion.

"I'm not very surprised, it helps to explain a lot of the suspicions I've had about particularly Russian athletes who I used to compete against," Yamauchi told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It's actually good for the sport, [IAAF president] Sebastian Coe says these are dark days but it's good to root out problems like this. Hopefully this can be a turning point for athletics and we can have a serious effort to clean up the sport."

The WADA commission has called for five athletes and five coaches to be given lifelong bans.