PARIS: World champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov and high-jumper Maria Kuchina are among seven Russian athletes granted permission to compete as neutrals while the Russian track and field team is banned for doping, the IAAF said on Tuesday.
“I wish to thank the Doping Review Board for their continued dedication and diligence in assessing these applications,” said IAAF president Sebastian Coe, clearing the seven to take part in international competition, including the world championships in London in August.
The other Russians deemed to be drug-free and named on Tuesday to run under a neutral flag are: Illia Mudrov (pole vault); Sergey Shirobokov (race walks); Daniil Tsyplakov (high jump); Olga Mullina (pole vault); and Yana Smerdova (race walks).
The Doping Review Board of the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) “unanimously accepted” the applications of the seven, the IAAF said in a statement.
Russia’s athletics team was barred wholesale from the Rio Olympics last summer because of widespread doping that the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) says was state-sponsored.
Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations it was involved, but Wada has said the cheating extended to multiple Olympic sports from the Summer and Winter Games over several years. In total this year 10 applications from Russian athletes have been approved and 17 have been declined, as the IAAF attempts to clean up athletics.
In February the IAAF extended the ban on Russia’s team to the world championships this summer — Russia has been barred from international track and field competition since November 2015.
After the IAAF move in February, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said that Russian athletics coaches “don’t understand how to work without doping”.
The IAAF said then that Russian progress over doping was mixed, pointing to “unhelpful public comments recently made by some Russian sporting officials” — a possible reference to the outspoken Mutko, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reigning 110m hurdles world champion Shubenkov was damning then of the IAAF’s prolonged ban on the Russian team. “They said we have a chance to compete as neutrals but for some reason we still do not compete,” he said in February. — AFP
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