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12 | Touchline issue 22 | November 2015
sports shorts
EX IAAF PRESIDENT INVESTIGATED UNDER DRUGS COVER-UP ALLEGATIONS
Five Russian athletes have been banned for drugs offences
by the Russian athletics federation amidst allegations that
former IAAF President Lamine Diack received 1million Euros
to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes.
A statement on the Russian federation’s website said three
athletes had been banned on the basis of information
received from the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA and
the other two disqualified on the basis of the documents
received from the IAAF.
The athletes are marathon runner Maria Konovalova, who
finished second at the Chicago Marathon in 2010 and third in
2013, banned for two years for irregularities in her biological
passport, and Olympic hammer thrower Maria Bespalova,
banned for four years after testing positive for a steroid.
The runners Vlas Bredikhin and Yaroslav Kholopov were
both banned for four years, and race walker Yevgeny
Nushtayev received a six-month ban, the federation said.
The IAAF scandal erupted when prosecutors from the
Parquet National Financier (PNF) - the office that handles
financial prosecutions in France - confirmed that Diack is
being investigated.
Prosecutors said the investigations included a probe into
allegations that Diack was paid more than one million euros
to cover up positive drugs tests.
The scandal broke in December 2014 when German
broadcaster ARD alleged a number of positive dope tests
involving Russian athletes were covered up by IAAF officials.
SELF-DRIVING GOLF CART A FIRST IN CANADA, SAYS ONTARIO UNIVERSITY
Two engineering students at the University of Waterloo
(UoW) in southern Ontario have created what they call the
first autonomous vehicle to drive on a Canadian road.
Michael Skupien and Alex Rodrigues, founders of Varden
Labs, developed the self-driving golf cart during an e-co-
op term, a programme run through Waterloo’s Conrad
Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre.
Both Skupien and Rodrigues are second-year students in
UoW’s Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering program.
Varden Labs’ website says that Skupien, the mechanical lead,
boasts more than five years of building mobile robots, while
Rodrigues, software lead, has been programming since he
was 13 and was ranked as one of the top 20 programmers in
Canada while in high school.
“The team members hope their technology will power
fully autonomous electric shuttles that can be used on
university campuses, corporate campuses and in retirement
communities around the world,” the release said.