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SPORT’S highest tribunal yesterday rejected Russia’s appeal against a doping ban for its entire athletics team from the Rio Olympics starting in 15 days’ time air max outlet clearance , drawing swift and angry condemnation from Moscow.


The decision by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport increases the possibility that the International Olympic Committee will now exclude Russia from all sports, not just track and field, in Rio de Janeiro.


That would mark the deepest crisis in the Olympic movement since the United States and Soviet boycotts of the 1980s, and would be a grave blow to a nation that prides itself on its status as a sporting superpower.


“CAS rejects the claimsappeal of the Russian Olympic Committee and 68 Russian athletes,” CAS said in a statement that backed the right the International Association of Athletics Federations to suspend the Russian athletics federation.


Russia is one of the world’s foremost sporting powers which won the third biggest overall medal haul at the last summer Olympics in 2012 — though some of those results are now in question because of doping.


Double Olympic champion pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva called the decision “the funeral of athletics”.


“Now let all these foreign pseudo-clean sportspeople sigh with relief and win their pseudo-gold medals in our absence,” Isinbayeva wrote on Instagram. “They have always feared (our) strength.”


The ban on Russia’s track-and-field team going to Rio was imposed last November by the IAAF after an independent report uncovered rampant state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics. It was maintained in June after the IAAF Council ruled that not enough progress had been made in transforming Russia’s anti-doping programme.


Russia had argued it had taken steps to clean up the sport, and that the blanket ban was unfair to individual athletes with no record of doping.


Russian officials, and many ordinary people, have interpreted the doping allegations as part of a conspiracy inspired by Western governments who fear Moscow’s growing influence.


A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry called the court decision “a crime against sport”.


With its decision, the court was “absolutely violating the rights of clean athletes, creating a precedent of collective responsibility”, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said in comments televised on state channels.


The ball is now in the court of the IOC to decide whether Russia should be excluded from all sports at the Rio Games, starting on August 5.


Pressure on the IOC to take such a step increased this week after another report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency revealed evidence of systematic state-sponsored doping by Russian athletes before and during the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.


The IOC’s executive committee met to discuss the issue on Tuesday and though it condemned the activities and started disciplinary proceedings against many of those involved, it postponed any announcement on a possible blanket ban pending the outcome of the CAS hearing.


The IOC is expected to reach a final decision on Sunday.


The IAAF said it was pleased that the CAS had supported its stance. “While we are thankful that our rules and our power to uphold our rules and the anti-doping code have been supported, this is not a day for triumphant statements,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said. “I didn’t come into this sport to stop athletes from competing. It is our federation’s instinctive desire to include, not exclude.”

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OSLO, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Norway's parliament on Wednesday reached an agreement that the country's sovereign wealth fund should sell shares in all companies in its portfolio which generate more than 30 percent of their revenues from coal.


The agreement was accepted by all parties at a meeting of the Norwegian parliament's finance committee and will be formally adopted by the legislature on June 5, according to English-language digital news publisher The Local.


"This is a great victory for the climate," said Torstein Svedt Solberg from Norway's Labor Party, who acted as the rapporteur for the negotiations. "Coal is in class of its own and is the source responsible for the largest emissions of greenhouse gases."


He said that the deal had been reached after long and detailed discussions, meaning there was little chance of serious disagreements between the parties as the government draws up the new guidelines for Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund.


The fund, formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) and ranked as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, has already been reducing its holdings of pure-play coal mining companies, revealing at the start of the month that it had cut its investment in the sector by two fifths since the start of the year.


LONDON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Following are the English FA Cup semifinal results at Wembley here on Saturday:


Arsenal tied Wigan 1-1 after extra-time


(Arsenal win 4-2 on penalties)


Playing on Sunday