The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) today approved the permission for 21 Russian athletes to compete as neutrals this year.
The IAAF Doping Review Board granted the authorization to the requests of those athletes to continue their participation in international meetings and competitions under neutral flag, in accordance with the exceptional eligibility criteria protected by IAAF Competition Rule 22.1A (b).
However, the Russian Athletics Federation, suspended since November 2015 for doping, will continue to be disqualified.
The president of the IAAF, the British Sebastian Coe, clarified that after the punishment received by the Russian entity, two processes were opened, the first to try to reintegrate the national agency -according to previous and supervised actions-, as well as a special working group led by Norwegian expert Rune Andersen, an international expert in aspects linked with doping.
The second measure involved separating clean athletes from a structure created for the use of prohibited substances and thus athletes would have the opportunity to compete in an international event, but not reperesenting Russia.