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It might have been a case of believing what he wanted to believe, but when Mike Spracklen heard the IOC had offloaded the final judgement on his Russian rowers to the International Rowing Federation (FISA), he believed he’d be taking all five of his crews to Rio.

Then the hammer came down. And with one press release, rowing’s governing body wiped out over three years of work in which the legendary coach had revived the broken Russian program.

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“I was well aware of Russia’s reputation for the use of drugs,” Spracklen wrote in an email from Portugal on Thursday, where the Russian team has been training.

“But it was a challenge I could not resist and set about raising their standard, at the same time showing the athletes and the Russian coaches that success can be achieved without drugs, but by hard, systematic training.

“For three years I have worked hard against the use of drugs, and to be told 10 days before (the Olympics) that they cannot race, despite being clean, destroys everything I tried to do for clean sport. ”