Russians still banned as the track and field world championships open in Tokyo

TOKYO AP Sebastian Coe the head of World Athletics on Friday revealed the organization is sticking to its long-held position that Russian athletes won t be allowed at the upcoming world championships and other big events until a peace settlement is reached in its war in Ukraine Track and field s hard-line stance is an outlier among Olympic sports a great number of of which allowed Russians to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics last year and also at various world championships Russians have been almost absolutely absent from major international track meets for about a decade dating to when they were sanctioned as the conclusion of a doping embarrassment and the subsequent coverup that engulfed the Winter Olympics in Sochi Not long after World Athletics lifted that ban in it enacted a new one related to Russia s then-recent invasion of Ukraine It s pretty obvious that we want a full contingent Coe disclosed on the eve of world championships when requested if there were any changes to the Russia approach We need a settled position We need a peaceful agreement before we can move off that landscape The world championships will feature about athletes from countries They ll take place at Japan s billion National Stadium which was built for the Tokyo Olympics Those Games were delayed a year by the pandemic and eventually held in Tokyo but without fans At those Olympics World Athletics granted only spots for Russians who competed as Authorized Neutral Athletes Among them was Maria Lasitskene who won the gold medal in high jump but has not competed in a major international event since No nothing has changed Coe declared about the guidelines I hope to God that it does change not just for athletics because it s an unsustainable situation AP Summer Olympics https apnews com hub -paris-olympic-games Source