Rio Olympics 2016: IOC have 'passed the buck' over Russia - Lynn Davies

The decision not to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics has "disappointed" former UK Athletics president Lynn Davies.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will leave it up to individual sports' governing bodies to decide if Russian competitors are clean and should be allowed to take part.

The decision follows a report which said Russia operated a state-sponsored doping programme from 2011 to 2015.

"It's sent out the wrong message to athletes and coaches," said Davies, 74.

"It seems to me as if they are almost passing the buck on to the individual sport's federations.

"The IOC are the guardians of the Olympic ideal. This was an opportunity for the IOC to make a very strong message. They didn't seize that opportunity."

The decision not to impose a blanket ban came after a three-hour meeting of the IOC's executive board.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) claimed the IOC had "refused to take decisive leadership".

The 28 individual federations now have just 12 days to "carry out an individual analysis of each competitor's anti-doping record".

The International Tennis Federation quickly confirmed on Sunday that Russia's seven nominated tennis players meet the IOC requirements, having been subjected to "a rigorous anti-doping testing programme outside Russia".

Russian track and field athletes have been banned by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) from competing at Rio 2016.

Welshman Davies, Olympic long jump champion at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics supported the IAAF's decision to ban Russia's athletics team.

"They set a very good example and I thought the IOC, looking at the bigger picture, would then have banned the whole Russian team," Davies told BBC Wales Sport.

"If you do have Russian athletes competing in other sports, the focus of the media are going to be on the Russian athletes in Rio and not the athletes who have proven to be clean and above board.

"The IOC have let the athletes down and have detracted from what I think will be a very good Games in Rio. I think it's a huge mistake."

Competitors from Russia who want to take part in the Games will have to meet strict criteria laid down by the IOC.

Any Russian who has served a doping ban will not be eligible for next month's Olympics.