RUSSIA is running out of time to eradicate doping and may not be able to send a track and field team to this year’s Rio Olympics, Dick Pound, chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission, said Wednesday.

    “There seems to be some evidence that they’re just changing deck chairs on the Titanic,” he told an anti-doping conference in London.

    Russian athletes were banned from international competition after a report by Pound’s commission revealing widespread doping and graft with involvement of Russian and international athletics officials. Russian athletics authorities were ordered to carry out sweeping reforms to allow a lifting of the ban.

    “My guess is Russia may not make it back for Rio. The IAAF and WADA are not going to risk their reputations by rolling over and playing dead,” Pound said.

    Russia will be allowed to return to competition only when it can prove to WADA and the IAAF that it has met a series of conditions regarding its anti-doping operation.(SD-Agencies)