Danil Lysenko has blamed former Russian Athletics Federation officials for his whereabouts and tampering ban ©Getty Images

Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko has apologised to "innocent" athletes from the country who have been impacted by the fallout of his doping case as he reiterated his claim that senior Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) officials were to blame.

Lysenko is serving a four-year ban for anti-doping rule breaches, including whereabouts failures and tampering with the results management process.

The case derailed Russia's attempts to have its suspension lifted by World Athletics and prompted the organisation to stop authorising Russians to compete internationally as neutral athletes, a scheme that has since been reinstated.

RusAF officials including former President Dmitry Shlyakhtin were found to have forged medical documents and provided false information in an attempt to explain Lysenko's violations and help him avoid a ban, and were banned for four years.

Lysenko, a former world indoor champion, told Reuters he accepted guilt for his offences but insisted he was acting at the direction of the embattled RusAF.

"Of course I could have said no, but I didn't," he said.

"I listened to the bosses and decided to do as they said.

"I'm certainly aware that innocent athletes have suffered because of this situation.

"I'm very sorry."

The case involving Danil Lysenko and senior RusAF officials deepened the crisis in Russian athletics ©Getty Images
The case involving Danil Lysenko and senior RusAF officials deepened the crisis in Russian athletics ©Getty Images

Lysenko's first whereabouts failure concerned a missed test on September 19 in 2017 and was followed by him failing to provide a whereabouts filing for quarter two of 2018 by the deadline of March 31.

He then failed to provide a whereabouts filing for quarter three of 2018 by the deadline of June 30.

Lysenko, a former world indoor and Youth Olympic champion, gave a medical explanation for the second whereabouts violation, saying he had spent a week in hospital with acute appendicitis.

An Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) investigation later discovered the clinic had been demolished before Lysenko had allegedly been treated there, with photographs used on its website having come from an insurance company.

Lysenko later admitted the documents and explanations that he had provided to the AIU relating to his medical explanation "were false and fabricated".

He said "people from the Federation" had helped him create the story, and that "it was a commonly made decision to develop this story".

Lysenko was banned for six years but the Court of Arbitration for Sport suspended the last two years after he provided assistance which helped to bring down other officials implicated.

He is not able to return to the sport until at least August 3 of next year.