Vladimir Morozov becomes first Russian to appeal Olympic ban

There was good news for Russia on Friday when the Russian Taekwondo Union said it had received notification from the World Taekwondo Federation that all three of its entries could compete in Rio.

Most Russian track and field stars, including world champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov and high jumper Maria Kuchina, competed in Thursday’s meet, which was topped off by a surprise appearance by sports minister Vitaly Mutko.

This means that three of the four riders who competed in the team pursuit for Russian Federation at the 2016 World Championships will now not be able to compete.

The IWF has offered Russia’s spots to athletes from 8 different countries.

To replace the eight Russian lifters in Rio, five countries were offered places in the men’s competition – Belarus, Croatia, El Salvador, Mongolia and Serbia.

Saudi Arabia will send four women to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, doubling its female participation after two women competed for the first time at the 2012 London Games.

Any Russian who has served a doping suspension is automatically ruled out but others were also to be banned if they could not effectively “prove themselves clean”.

Russia’s weightlifting team was barred on Friday from participating in the Rio Olympics due to doping.

That was because of the decision by WADA that there was not enough information about how long meldonium takes to leave the body, and that athletes using it before it became illegal at the start of the year could not be punished.

Individual decisions on Russian athletes will be taken by relevant global federations.

“It should show that no matter how much pressure they put on us we are ready to fight and run further”, said Pavel Ivashko, victor of the 400m race.

“This is a decision we just had the opportunity to discuss with some athletes”, Bach said in Rio. “They (competitors in Rio) would probably have been afraid of us”.

Hammer thrower Sergey Litvinov last week wrote a letter to IAAF president Sebastian Coe saying that relying on the Russian athletics federation “does not make me optimistic”.

The IWF Executive Board confirmed that the Russian Weightlifting Federation and Russian weightlifters brought the weightlifting sport into disrepute.

The Australian gymnastics team are awaiting a decision by the global federation (FIG) on Russian athletes to see if they will replace them, while the women’s eight rowing crew has been handed a berth in place of a banned Russian team.

All athletes beneficiating from this last minute Reallocation were tested in the Qualification Period and are subject to further testing before participation.