The President of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov commented on the results of the Extraordinary Conference of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).
– I am pleased to accept the results of today’s RusAF conference. The most important point is that the Federation has elected a new President and new governing bodies. The Executive Board has been completely reshuffled, and I believe that all the necessary conditions have been created for effective and productive work. This was one of the key tasks of the ROC working group – to organize and hold the Conference in such a way so that the new leadership of RusAF could immediately begin to address the key tasks ahead – the prompt resumption of the procedure for admitting clean Russian athletes to take part in international competitions held under the auspices of World Athletics.
I want to highlight another important point – the criteria for the election procedures that were developed and recommended by the members of our working group to the participants of the conference were unanimously accepted by the delegates, and this, in my opinion, is a testament to the responsible approach of the athletics community to the future of RusAF and its further development.
We perfectly understood that these criteria are the most stringent and could cause anyone to react negatively. However, the critical situation in which our Athletics Federation found itself left us with no choice. I am glad that our colleagues heard us and agreed with our position. During the Conference we held an open and sincere exchange of views, as well as discussions about the most acute problems facing RusAF. Various avenues and scenarios for further actions to solve the problems at hand were discussed. At the same time, there was no indifference, and the voting results indicate that the delegates eventually agreed on the main issues and now they are ready to support the new leadership.
I wish Yevgeny Yurchenko and the new members of the Presidium of the Athletics Federation successful and productive work. On its part, the Russian Olympic Committee and our working group are ready to continue to provide assistance to RusAF within the scope of our authority in order to solve the issues facing Russian track-and-field athletics.
