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.”

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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.