Doping summit to tackle further measures ahead of Rio Games

The statement appeared to rule out any chance of the International Olympic Committee intervening to overturn or water down the decision or somehow give the Russians another route into the games.

There is still the possibility that some Russian athletes might be able to compete in Rio under an International Olympic Committee flag, in neutral colours, providing they have clean records that are backed up by a credible anti-doping agency.

The IOC went even further, saying it would undertake “further far-reaching measures in order to ensure a level playing field for all the athletes” competing in Rio. Race-walkers Denis Nizhegorodov and Svetlana Vasilyeva launched an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the decision to uphold the doping ban, which would bar them from competing in Rio, All Sport news agency reported.

Russia’s athletes compete during the National track and field championships at a stadium in Cheboksary, Russia, Monday, June 20, 2016.

It is also known that McLaren’s investigation has shared information with the IAAF task force that has been in Russian Federation for the last few months to assess what progress, if any, has been made in solving the country’s doping habit. However, IAAF officials said only a handful of athletes fall into that category and stressed that no Russians would compete under their national flag at the games. “Tomorrow (Russian) athletics won’t be reinstated, I’m totally sure of that”.

Coe acknowledged that Russia had made some progress but not enough “to give us full confidence that this was the right moment for the reintroduction of the Russian federation or athletes”.

The former London 2012 boss and double Olympic champion told reporters he would be taking this message to the Lausanne summit and he was confident the IOC would respect it.

On Sunday Mutko also said the governing body should be disbanded. It is a very simple principle.

This is a point other global federations will be considering as they head to Lausanne for the IOC summit, as it is now clear Russia’s doping problems extend beyond athletics.

The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is pressing the World Anti-Doping Agency to explain why it delayed an investigation into allegations of systematic cheating by the Russian Olympic team.

An investigation funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency into allegations made by the former director of Moscow’s anti-doping lab Grigory Rodchenkov is now being led by Canadian legal expert Richard McLaren.