Another 84 Russian Paralympic athletes challenge ban at Bonn court

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Another 84 Russian athletes have filed lawsuits at the state court in the German city of Bonn demanding to admit them to the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Pavel Rozhkov, the first vice president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, said on Tuesday.

The suit was filed with the Bonn state court as this city is the seat of the International Paralympic Committee's headquarters.

Rozhkov also said that ten Russian athletes whose bids for an injunction allowing them to compete at the Paralympics were rejected by the Bonn court on Monday have appealed the ruling at the court in Cologne.

"The state court in Bonn has rejected the bids of 10 Russian Paralympians for adoption of urgent measures to allow them to compete in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This morning the court in Bonn received individual lawsuits from another 84 Russian Paralympians. The ten Russian athletes whose lawsuits were turned down yesterday appealed the decision of the state court in Bonn at the court in Cologne. The courts in Cologne and Bonn are expected to make their rulings tomorrow," Rozhkov stressed.

The entire Russian Paralympic team has been barred from the Paralympic Games that will start in Brazil on September 7. Last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the International Paralympic Committee's decision not to admit any Russian Paralympians to the games. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) denied 175 Russian Paralympians the right to compete in the Rio Paralympics as individual athletes. The IPC based its decision on the conclusions made in the ill-famous report of sports law Professor Richard McLaren, who chairs the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). On July 22, the International Paralympic Committee opened a case against the Russian Paralympic Committee on grounds that the names of 35 Russian Paralympians were mentioned in McLaren’s report.