Photo: VCG

The head of Russia's anti-doping agency said Monday that his country had "no chance" of winning an appeal against a four-year international sporting ban he said was a tragedy for clean athletes.

"There is no chance of winning this case in court," RUSADA chief Yury Ganus told AFP after the World Anti-Doping Agency imposed the ban.

RUSADA's supervisory board is set to meet on December 19 to take a decision on whether to appeal the ban, he said.

"This is a tragedy," he said. "Clean athletes are seeing their rights limited."

Ganus said that some Russian athletes were contemplating leaving Russia so that they could train elsewhere.

He described the sentiments among athletes as "awful," stressing that four years for a sportsman is a long time.

Earlier Monday WADA's executive committee, meeting in Lausanne, decided that Russia be handed a four-year suspension after accusing Moscow of falsifying laboratory data.

Russian athletes have already faced a series of bans over the last few years and were forced to participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games as neutral competitors.