Russian Athletics Federation President Dmitry Shlyakhtin is traveling to London "to plead" for the country's int'l ban to be lifted. Shlyakhtin will address the IAAF Congress this week before the World Championships begin in London on Friday. His speech coincides with the Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov suggesting that the nation's 20-month exile will "end by the start of next year" (LONDON TIMES, 7/31).
Anti-doping officials from Sport Ireland launched an investigation after urine samples taken from Gaelic Athletic Association players were "lost by couriers on two separate occasions" while en route to a WADA laboratory in Germany. There were also seven failed attempts by anti-doping officials to test GAA players between June '16 and May '17 (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 7/31).
The Athletics Integrity Unit and UK Athletics announced their plans for an anti-doping program at the IAAF World Championships London 2017. At the heart of the testing program will be the collection of more than 600 blood samples prior to the championships to continue building athlete biological passport profiles and to detect prohibited substances (IAAF).
The Indian Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the BCCI to a plea from Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy "seeking e-auctioning of media rights" of the Indian Premier League. The court "asked the cricket board to file its reply within two weeks" and posted the matter for further hearing on Aug. 22 (PTI, 7/28).
Formula 1 said that cutting negative opinions about the "Halo" safety concept from press conference footage was an "editorial decision." In Thursday's FIA press conference in Hungary, drivers including Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen "criticized the controversial forward protection system." But only drivers with "positive opinions" were included in the official video edit of the press conference (GMM, 7/30).
