IAAF Approves the Application of 42 Russian Athletes to Compete Internationally as Neutral Athletes

The IAAF Doping Review Board has agreed that the applications of 42 Russian athletes have met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in international competition as neutral athletes in 2019 under competition Rule 22.1A(b) while the Russian national federation (RusAF) remains suspended.

The application process for athletes seeking neutral status in international competitions in 2019 opened in December 2018. The Doping Review Board is prioritising, wherever possible, applications from athletes wishing to compete in the current indoor season.

The Doping Review Board, which is composed of Robert Hersh (chair), Sylvia Barlag and Antti Pihlakoski, has accepted the applications of the following athletes:

First name, family name (discipline) – in alphabetical order

Diana Adasko (triple jump)

Maxim Afonin (shot put)

Dzhennifer Akiniimika (sprints)

Mariia Aglitckaia (100m hurdles)

Rinas Akhmadeev (long distance)

Elizaveta Bondarenko (pole vault)

Oleg Braiko (jumps)

Viktor Butenko (discus)

Timofey Chalyy (400m hurdles)

Danila Danilov (hammer)

Alexey Fedorov (triple jump)

Aksana Gatauillina (pole vault)

Georgiy Gorokhov (pole vault)

Illia Ivaniuk (high jump)

Maria Kochanova (high jump)

Viacheslav Kolesnichenko (sprints)

Alexander Komarov (combined events) – European U20 Championships only

Vilena Komarova (combined events)

Elena Kulichenko (high jump)

Anna Krylova (triple jump)

Maria Lasitskene (high jump)

Aleksandr Lesnoi (shot put)

Denis Lukyanov (hammer)

Alena Lutkovskaia (pole vault)

Alena Mamina (sprints)

Polina Miller (sprints)

Vasiliy Mizinov (race walks)

Timur Morgunov (pole vault)

Ilia Mudrov (pole vault)

Olga Mullina (pole vault)

Egor Nikolaev (1500m)

Sofia Palkina (hammer)

Viktoriia Prokopenko (triple jump)

Vera Rudakova (400m hurdles)

Fedor Shutov (long distance)

Illia Skkurenev (combined events)

Anastasiia Shkurutova (hammer)

Sergey Shubenkov (110m hurdles)

Anzhelika Sidorova (pole vault)

Olesia Soldatova (400m)

Yana Smerdova (race walks)

Elizaveta Tsareva (hammer)

All 42 athletes were afforded neutral status in 2018.

The participation of all these athletes as neutral athletes in international competition is still subject to formalities for eligibility under IAAF Rules being completed and subject to acceptance of their entries by individual meeting organisers.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe said: "In 2015 the IAAF Council suspended the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF). We put two processes in place at that time. The first was a process by which RusAF could be reinstated. This included a clear set of steps and actions to be overseen by a special taskforce led by Rune Andersen. The second was the ANA process which was designed to separate clean athletes from a tainted system, a process which would allow clean athletes from Russia an opportunity to compete in international competition and give all other athletes confidence that athletes granted ANA status had been through an eligibility process. My thanks go to the Doping Review Board and the Athletics Integrity Unit for their diligence and hard work year on year to maintain this process."

As this is an ongoing process, the IAAF will only make announcements as and when decisions are made by the Doping Review Board concerning successful applications and those athletes have been informed.

IAAF

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