Tokyo 2020: Maximum of 10 Russian track and field athletes to compete as neutrals
- Published
Russia's Mariya Lasitskene won high jump gold at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, competing under the Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) flag
A maximum of 10 Russian track and field athletes will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo, World Athletics has announced.
It has also fined the Russian athletics federation $10m (£7.8m) for breaching anti-doping rules.
Athletes will be banned from Tokyo 2020 if half of that fine is not paid by 1 July.
In December, Russia was given a four-year ban from all major sports events.
"The package of sanctions approved by the council reflects the seriousness of Rusaf's wrongdoing and sends a clear message that we take these types of offences by our member federations extremely seriously," a World Athletics statement said.
The statement added "previous measures were not enough" to change the culture of Russian athletes and World Athletics "feels severely let down by the previous Rusaf administration".
"We have consistently tried to separate the clean athletes from a tainted system, which is why we have reinstated the ANA process for athletes from Russia," it said.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) sanctioned Russia in autumn 2019 after its anti-doping agency was declared non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators in January 2019.
It had to hand over data to Wada as a condition of its controversial reinstatement in 2018 after a three-year suspension for its vast state-sponsored doping scandal.