1ST LEAD IBSF panel doesn't suspend Russians because of possible breach of law By Stefan Tabeling and John Bagratuni, dpa

Berlin (dpa) - The ruling bobsleigh and skeleton federation IBSF said Tuesday its Doping Hearing Panel has decided not to suspend Russian 2014 Olympic gold medallists Alexandr Zubkov and Alexandr Tretiakov because proceedings leading to their Olympic bans may have violated international law.The IBSF said it will bring the case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), while the panel said "it would be clearly unfair" to suspend the athletes again because a whistleblower could not be cross-examined.Zubkov and Tretiakov are among more the 30 Russians disqualified from the Sochi Games 2014 and banned from the Olympics for life by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in connection with allegations of state-sponsored doping practices by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigator Richard McLaren.Key whistleblower in the case is former Moscow anti-doping lab chief Gerigory Rodchenkov who has spoken to McLaren but was not heard in the IOC proceedings as he is now in the United States and under protection there."The IBSF Doping Hearing Panel comes to the conclusion that not hearing Dr Rodchenkov before a proper Disciplinary Commission or Hearing Panel instead of exclusively before McLaren is convincingly probable to be successfully contested before a Court as being not compatible with the principles of international law, Swiss procedural law," a statement said.It said there was "a legal necessity to have Dr Rodchenkov as witness available for examination and/or cross examination in order to create equality of treatment and therewith due process."But the panel also insisted it was not contesting the McLaren report but for the aforementioned reasons could re-apply a suspension.The IOC has named Rodchenkov a credible witness in the case which has also seen Russia not allowed to enter the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Olympics as a team but only individually as neutral athletes if they are clean.Both are among many sanctioned Russian athletes who are contesting the IOC bans at the CAS which aims to reach a decision before the Febrauy 9 start in South Korea.Zubkov, who is now president of the Russian bobsleigh federation, won double gold in the two-man and four-man events in Sochi, and Tretiak the men‘s skeleton. Overall, Russia has been stripped of more than 10 medals, including four golds, by the IOC.The probes are not yet completed and 46 Russians under investigation overall in schemes including taking in doping substances and sample-swapping.Russia has denied state-sponsored doping activities and spoken of a conspiracy. But President Vladimir Putin and sports officials have said that Russian athletes should accept competing as neutrals in South Korea.