WADA commission calls for Russia ban due to widespread doping allegations

A World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission has recommended that Russia should be banned from future athletics competitions, including the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

A report was released today detailing allegations of doping, cover-ups and extortion within Russian athletics.

The IAAF has also been criticised in the report, with claims that there were "systematic failures" within the system that hampered the anti-doping programme.

The WADA commission has stated that London 2012 was "sabotaged" by the presence of Russia competing, and there have been calls for five athletes and five coaches to be handed lifetime bans.

The report has accused the Russian government of complicity in widespread doping and cover-ups, and it has also been revealed that more than 1,400 samples were destroyed by Moscow laboratory officials after WADA wrote to the officials asking them to preserve target samples.

Newspaper reports at the weekend claimed that as much as £857,000 was handed to heads of world athletics to allow athletes who feared that they could be banned to compete in the London Olympics.

Sebastian Coe's IAAF president predecessor Lamine Diack is under investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.