Danil Lysenko in action. He won the world indoor title in Birmingham last year and had been tipped for success in Tokyo next year, but has not competed since August

Russia is facing a ban from the 2020 Olympics over allegations that its top athletics officials oversaw the cover-up of a doping offence by a high jumper who had been tipped to win gold at the Games.

The incident has led to an investigation that could undermine efforts by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to persuade the world that his country’s scandal-hit athletics team should be allowed back into international competition.

Sources have told The Sunday Times that officials from the Russian Athletics Federation conspired to help Danil Lysenko, the world indoor high jump champion, avoid a ban for failing to inform drug testers about his whereabouts last year.

Lysenko, right, with Vladimir Putin in 2014. He is a hero to Russia’s elite EAST2WEST NEWS

It is alleged that documents were fabricated to pretend that Lysenko, 22, was too ill