IBU prolongs exclusion of Russians and Belarusians

No World Cup for Belarus and Russia forced to compete in their Commonwelath Cup

Friday 16 September 2022 2 minutes reading time

Today the IBU decided to extend the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Biathlon World Cup. The decision was made during the federation congress in Salzburg where the event will take place from 15 to 18 September. Specifically, with a ballot of 39 yes, 2 no and 5 abstentions it will not allow athletes to participate in the CdM until the date defined. As if that were not enough, a second motion of 40 yes, 1 no, 4 abstentions and 1 invalid vote was put on the scales for the suspension of the Russian and Belarusian executive office until they commit themselves and do not demonstrate to promote the principles and aims of the IBU. The letter sent in recent days by the head of the Russian Federation Viktor Maigurov to convince the IBU to reintegrate the athletes was useless, consequently Alexander Loginov, Dzinara Alimbekava, Anton Smolski, Kristina Rezstova, Said Khalili and Hanna Sola are obliged to compete only in the commonwealth cup, a competition created in May by the two federations excluded in response to the suspension for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In any case, should the situation change, the IBU can temporarily revoke the suspension pending the next congress.