Usain Bolt has his say on Russian athletes’ Olympic ban

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Usain Bolt has given a &&num;8220&semi;thumbs up&&num;8221&semi; to the decision to ban the Russian athletics team from the Rio Olympics because of widespread doping&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The IAAF&comma; world athletics&&num;8217&semi; governing body&comma; banned the Russian team last month and today that decision was rubber-stamped by the Court of Arbitration for Sport &lpar;CAS&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Swiss-based body rejected an appeal against the hard-line IAAF stance by the Russian Olympic Committee and 68 individual athletes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking ahead of Friday&&num;8217&semi;s Muller Anniversary Games in London&comma; the 29-year-old Bolt said the situation was &&num;8220&semi;sad&&num;8221&semi; but the decision would send a powerful message about clean sport&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;advertis<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;For me&comma; if you have the proof and you catch somebody&comma; I definitely feel you should take action&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Jamaica&&num;8217&semi;s six-time Olympic sprint champion said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;If you feel like banning the whole team is the right action&comma; then I&&num;8217&semi;m all for it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Rules are rules and doping violations in track and field &lpar;are&rpar; getting really bad&comma; so if you feel like you need to make a statement&comma; and this is how you feel like you need to make a statement&comma; then thumbs up&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the view from Russia is very different&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva told the TASS news agency that the verdict was &&num;8220&semi;the funeral of track and field&&num;8221&semi; and dismissed it as politically motivated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier this week&comma; a second major WADA-funded investigation revealed that Russia&&num;8217&semi;s doping was run by the Ministry of Sport&comma; facilitated by the secret service and anti-doping set-up and encompassed almost every Olympic and Paralympic discipline&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Official Russian reaction to the CAS decision has been defiant&comma; with President Vladimir Putin&&num;8217&semi;s spokesman telling TASS it was &&num;8220&semi;hardly acceptable&&num;8221&semi; and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko calling it &&num;8220&semi;biased and politicised&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the big question now is whether the ruling from sport&&num;8217&semi;s highest court will persuade the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee to issue a blanket ban for the entire Russian delegation in Rio&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That is what a coalition of anti-doping agencies and athletes&&num;8217&semi; groups have been calling for but the IOC said on Tuesday it needed more time to consider its options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Its executive board is holding its second emergency meeting of the week on Sunday and has promised to make a final decision about a complete ban for the Russian team by Wednesday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The IPC&&num;8217&semi;s board is meeting tomorrow and is understood to be less reluctant than the IOC to consider such a radical and unprecedented step as throwing an entire country out for doping&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the meantime&comma; the federations that govern sports in the Olympic summer programme are meeting today to discuss their response to the crisis&comma; with several believed to be on the verge of following the IAAF&&num;8217&semi;s lead in banning their Russian member association&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When asked if it was important for sport to send clear messages on the consequences of cheating&comma; Bolt said&colon; &&num;8220&semi;I always feel like it&&num;8217&semi;s a good message to show that if you cheat or you go against the rules then we&&num;8217&semi;re going to take serious action&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This will scare a lot of people or send a strong message that the sport is serious about cleaning up&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed5e3b9087a">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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