Athletics-Kazakhstan Added to World Athletics’ Competition Manipulation Watch List

(Reuters) – Kazakhstan have been positioned on World Athletics’ watch checklist following an investigation of suspicious competitors outcomes carried out by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the game’s governing physique stated on Wednesday.

If a rustic is on the watch checklist, any outcomes achieved at competitions held by the member federation on their territory won’t be recognised by World Athletics.

This impacts an athlete’s possibilities of qualifying for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest this yr and the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris until they participate in worldwide competitions recognised by the governing physique.

“This resolution displays the excessive diploma of danger of outcomes manipulation inside the member federation’s territory and never the conduct of particular person officers or particular circumstances,” World Athletics stated in a press release.

“The World Athletics Competitors Division will work with the Kazakhstan Federation to enhance and reform their competitors procedures.

“Its place on the watch checklist will likely be saved underneath evaluation by the Council till such a time as they can show that they need to be eliminated.”

The Kazakhstan Athletics Federation didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark.

Different international locations on the watch checklist are Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey and Uzbekistan, which have all been on the checklist since September.

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Tomasz Janowski)

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