With no Russians, few stars and the sport engulfed in a doping crisis the world indoor athletics championships begin this week with officials holding their breath and eager to put the spotlight back on the track.
Former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell was banned for 18 months by a Jamaican anti-doping disciplinary panel on Thursday after he tested positive for a banned substance last year.
Five-times Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has criticised the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for not doing enough to make her aware that meldonium had been added to the list of banned substances last year.
The American athlete will miss the Athens Olympics after her appeal against a two-year drugs ban was dismissed
Former world number one Maria Sharapova has been invited to play at the Madrid Open in May, which takes place less than two weeks after her 15-month doping ban expires, tournament organisers said on Wednesday.
Five-time boxing World champion M C Mary Kom on Saturday said it is very disappointing that India ranks number 3 in doping and urged the government and Sports Authority of India (SAI) to do more to curb the menace.
Dozens of Russian athletes who competed at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, including at least 15 medal winners, were part of a state-run doping program.
Calls grow for global athletics probe after widespread doping allegations.
Dejected by the four-year ban imposed on Narsingh Yadav by CAS, the Indian Olympic Association has said that the embattled wrestler has been 'defeated by compatriots' rather than opponents.
'if my body is giving me company why should I stop the sport? Some foreign athletes run till 35 or 37. So I wanted to set an example for other athletes that age does not matter,' says MR Poovamma, Arjuna Awardee and the senior-most member of the Paris Olympics-bound Indian women's 4x400m relay team.
The World Anti-Doping Agency cut the doping ban on Russian Liliya Shobukhova by seven months on Monday, saying the marathon runner had provided "substantial assistance" and was eligible for a lighter sentence.
UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) said it was "deeply concerned and shocked" by a Sunday Times report in which a British doctor alleged he had prescribed banned performance-enhancing drugs to 150 sportsmen including several Premier League footballers.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Judo's governing body said that athletes were not obliged to take unscheduled drug tests when training in France in June and that those who refused, including Kosovo's gold medallist Majlinda Kelmendi, subsequently tested negative the next week.
Russian long jumper Tatyana Kotova has been provisionally suspended after failing a drugs test at the Helsinki 2005 world championships, the Russian anti-doping agency (RUSADA) said on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that WADA has violated the Olympic Charter in banning Russia and hence they have a ground to appeal.
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Narsingh Pancham Yadav was elected chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India's Athletes' Commission in Varanasi on Wednesday, completing a process that was mandated by the sport's world governing body.
Heavyweight world boxing champion Tyson Fury has tested positive for cocaine, ESPN reported on Friday citing a leaked letter sent by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA).
Paralympics boss Andrew Parsons expressed disgust that Russian authorities had let down the country's clean athletes
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Tuesday reduced by nine months former world number one tennis player Maria Sharapova's two-year doping ban.
A sweeping reform package that changes how the scandal-hit governing body of world athletics operates was overwhelmingly passed at a special Congress on Saturday.
The alleged conspiracy in the Narsingh Yadav dope scandal began to unravel, on Wednesday, with the wrestler identifying two fellow grapplers as the saboteurs, who contaminated his food with a banned steroid, in a formal police complaint.
The International Weightlifting Federation dropped the doping charge against Indian weightlifter K Sanjita Chanu due to "non-conformities" in the handling of her sample but the Commonwealth Games gold-medallist has demanded an apology and compensation for the "trauma" she has endured. The IWF made the decision based on the recommendation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The 26-year-old, who claimed innocence since the beginning, was informed about the final verdict via an e-mail, signed by IWF's legal counsel Lilla Sagi.
'I'm always surprised when I walk off court after a final and I'm like 'where is anti-doping?'
Russia was the leading doping offender in global sport during 2014, followed by Italy and India, the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Wednesday.
Jemima Sumgong, who last year became the first Kenyan woman to win Olympic gold in the marathon, has tested positive for the banned blood-booster EPO in an out-of-competition test carried out by the IAAF, the sport's governing body said on Thursday.
Russia has lost its appeal against its ban from next month's Rio Paralympics because of a state-sponsored doping programme, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sports highest tribunal, said on Tuesday. The decision to exclude Russia's entire Paralympics team, initially made on Aug. 7 by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), means at least 250 Russian competitors are set to miss the Sept. 7-18 event.
Following the ban on Russia in 2016, Russian athletes have been allowed to participate as neutrals at various events by the IAAF. For Tokyo, WADA will lay down a uniform criterion for all sporting disciplines to accept.
India's double-Olympic medal winning wrestler Sushil Kumar, on Saturday, conceded that he has met top officials of the WWE but ruled out any immediate move to professional wrestling.
Alberto Salazar, the coach of Britain's Olympic champion Mo Farah, has been accused of using prohibited infusions of supplements to improve the performance of his runners, the Sunday Times reported citing a leaked United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) report.
Swimming authorities need to increase the number of doping tests to preserve the sport's credibility and stop fans turning away according to Britain's triple world champion and double world record holder Adam Peaty.
The situation of Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova is "bad" after she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium and she may never play again, R-Sport news agency quoted Shamil Tarpishchev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, as saying.
'Following AIU charges based on LIMS data, Russian athlete Natalia Antyukh has been banned for the use of a Prohibited Substance/Method. DQ results from 15 July 2012 until 29 June 2013.'
Narsingh Yadav's chances of making it to the Olympics will be known on Thursday. The National Anti-Doping Agency's disciplinary panel adjourned its hearing on the dope scandal surrounding the wrestler on Wednesday evening, even as he failed a second dope test and lodged a police complaint against two fellow-grapplers.
Double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, a fierce critic of a Russian track and field ban at the Rio Olympics, was elected an International Olympic Committee member on Sunday but a third of the votes were against her.
The International Judo Federation -- which lists Russian President Vladimir Putin as its honorary president -- will allow the sport's Russian squad to participate in the Olympics, its head told Reuters on Tuesday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
"The athlete has challenged the imposition of the provisional suspension and the case has been referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport - Anti-Doping Division," the ITA said.
Russian long jumper Darya Klishina has been cleared to compete internationally as a neutral athlete after a successful appeal against a blanket ban on her country's track and field athletes for systematic doping.
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