Well, they never did, and they won’t be coming to the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in London this summer either.

While this may devalue the athletic - and aesthetic - content of the competition the argument is that it enhances its morality.

Well maybe it does. A nation where cheating via doping bas proved to be endemic does not deserve a place in the sporting sun.

Yet, I confess a sneaking sympathy for the Russians because the last thing these championships can claim is that they will be as pure as the driven Siberian snow.

They will be indelibly tainted by the presence of cheats past and present. Those that have been found out, served their time and forgiven, and those who have got and are still getting away with it.

British audiences are famously charitable when it comes to applauding one-time miscreants and at least one of them, the American sprinter Justin Gatlin, twice banned, in 2001 and 2008, for ingesting amphetamines and testosterone respectively, can be assured of nothing less than a warm reception.

He has turned 35, yet continues to return quick times for both the 100 and 200 metres.

Who knows whether his earlier ingestion of performance-enhancing stuff has left sufficient magic in his system to enhance his longevity?

He is now beating youngsters around half his age - witness his recent performance in the US Track and Field Championships in Sacremento when he outraced 21-year-old NCAA champ Christian Coleman to win the 100m.

Gatlin won in 9.95sec, into a headwind, to secure his place in London in August. Coleman finished second in 9.98 and Christopher Belcher was third at 10.06.

It's the fourth US title for Gatlin, the Athens 2004 Olympic champion. 

After a spate of injuries, he says: ”Mentally I’m getting sharp again. Physically, my body is catching up with where it needs to be.”

I confess, I am by nature a cynic. When you have been around major sport as long as I have it becomes inevitable. Whatever the counter-arguments, cheats do prosper. Gatlin is testimony to that.

Such entrenched cynicism convinces me that the druggies always will be one pace ahead as sport increases its reliance on medical science in the effort to keep pushing the boundaries. I hope I am wrong.

Even more concerning is that the public seem to care less about drug abuse in sport than the media or authorities.

You can bet there will be far fewer boos for Gatlin – if any - than there were for the then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne during the 2012 Paralympics when he handed out the medals for the top three of the men's T38 400m.

My suspicion is that many fans doubt whether doping is such a heinous a crime, anyway. What turns on some athletes turns off the spectators, who find drugs issues a bit of a yawn and those who take dope characters rather than cheats.

Personally I do not think Gatlin, for one, should continue to be so keenly welcomed. One way to help cure athletics’ ills would be to say to two strikes and you’re out – for good.

While there is no doubt many of Russia’s athletes are bang to rights when found guilty of cheating under the auspices of the state, some aren’t.

It seems wrong that while arey barred wen athletes like Gatlin aren't – and yes, there are quite a few from many other competing nations, including Britain, who have attempted to cheat, been caught and are now welcomed back with open arms .

What’s more there will be plenty on both track and field at the Olympic Park who have got away with it.

Lets not delude ourselves. In London, it will be a case of there but for the grace of crafty chemists, astute timing and masking agents go so many.

If Gatlin does win a medal - and perish the thought it will be gold - would Sebastian Coe dare to present it? Surely not.

However, on a more positive note so to speak, the great thing about these championships is that they will help restore the spirits of a nation so traumatised by recent tragedies.

There is nothing we Brits like more than a sporting extravaganza to take our minds of grimmer matters, whether it is an Olympics, Wimbledon, cup finals or big fights at Wembley there won’t be an empty seat.

Nor will there be when the 16^th World Championships kick-off on August 4. They cannot fail to capture the public imagination, as did the Olympics, not least with the likely valedictory appearances of two sporting phenomenons, Sir Mo Farah and Usain Bolt.

The happening will certainly put a smile on the face of the Coe, the IAAF's President.

Just as he often did on the track, Coe has brushed aside adversity to defy his critics and lead the way.

Soon after his election two years ago, he was vilified in some sections of the media, accused of turning a blind eye to some of the iniquities activities of his predecessor, and elsewhere within an organisation said to be in almost in the same league as FIFA.

It was also said that as a known Russophile - he has friends in high places in the Kremlin - he would thwart moves to ban the entire nation from global competition.

But the Russians aren’t coming, are they? Nor were they in Rio.

Coe, greyer and just a little gaunt these days, has weathered these maelstroms and if anything strengthened his position as the pooh-bah of world athletics and potential overlord of the International Olympic Committee.

We recall how his organisation and orchestration of London 2012 was extraordinarily successful and I have no doubt he will preside over the upcoming sequel with equal professional aplomb.

It is what he - and London - do best.