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IOC backs Russian ban but some athletes may compete

IAAF’s decision last week to uphold Russia’s suspension over evidence of state-sponsored doping in athletics had cast heavy doubt about whether Isinbayeva – the first woman to clear the 5-metre bar – would be taking part in her fifth and final Olympics in Rio.

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“I will give him a break of a few days, and will speak to him once again”.

But track and field’s world governing body, the International Association of Athletic Federations, disagrees.

Russian sports officials signaled Tuesday that they are prepared to go along with an extraordinary testing regime to get their athletes to Rio. “So we are expecting the results of these potential court cases”.

Russian officials and athletes have already said they will fight the IAAF at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but ROC president Alexander Zhukov denied in Lausanne there was any chance of a boycott.

The International Olympic Committee has backed the sanctioning of Russia track and field athletes over the country’s lack of anti-doping efforts, but says individual Russian athletes could be cleared to compete at August’s Rio Games.

No, in terms of promulgating real reform in Russian Federation, I suspect more progress has been made this year than we perhaps allow ourselves to imagine. “That’s a victory”, added Isinbayeva. The people’s mood yesterday and today was absolutely different.

“The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, turned out to be, if not humane, but sober-minded”.

“Now it means that the end of my career, I hope, will be in Rio”, she said.

But the IAAF left a window slightly open, saying individuals who definitively prove they were not tainted by the Russian system could still compete in Brazil. Then Moscow’s senior team won a mere bronze at the world hockey championships. “It’s super!” he exclaimed. “We have discussed the outcome of the championship in great detail”, Mutko said.

I am not convinced they reached this decision for what I would consider the right reasons; nonetheless, I think this is as it should be.

“One athlete who is likely to comply is Florida-based long jumper Darya Klishina”.

The IOC deemed competing under the Russian flag was appropriate as only the Russian Athletics Federation had been banned and not the Russian Olympic Committee.

“I read the news this morning”, Klishina told reporters on Tuesday. “So why should I be responsible for the mistakes of others?” she asked.

Yelena Isinbayeva said if she is not able to play in olympics thenn national championship final in Cheboksary will be last event.

But the head of Russia’s athletics federation, Dmitry Shlyakhtin, said on Monday that being based overseas should count in Klishina’s favour.

There is also an investigation into claims of doping in Russian and Chinese swimming being conducted by that sport’s global federation (FINA), and pressure is growing on weightlifting and wrestling to follow suit.

“When you don’t feel this competition, it’s very hard”, she said.

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“If there are athletes qualified, then they will compete as members of the team of the Russian Olympic Committee because only a national Olympic committee can enter athletes to the Olympic Games”, Bach said.

Some Russian Olympians could compete under own flag