Seven more Russians cleared to compete as neutrals

World champion hurdler Sergey Shubenkov and high jumper Maria Kuchina are among seven Russian athletes granted permission to compete as neutrals while the Russian track and field team is banned for doping, the International Association of Athletics Federations ( IAAF) said Tuesday.

“I wish to thank the Doping Review Board for their continued dedication and diligence in assessing these applications,” said IAAF President Sebastian Coe, clearing the seven to take part in international competition, including the world cham- pionships in London in August.

The other Russians deemed to be drug- free and named Tuesday to run under a neutral flag are: Illia Mudrov ( pole vault), Sergey Shirobokov ( race walks), Daniil Tsyplakov ( high jump), Olga Mullina ( pole vault) and Yana Smerdova ( race walks).

Russia’s athletics team was barred wholesale from the Rio Olympic Games last summer because of widespread doping that the World Anti- Doping Agency ( WADA) says was statesponsored.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations it was involved, but WADA has said the cheating extended to multiple Olym- pic sports from the Summer and Winter Games over several years.

In total this year, 10 applications from Russian athletes have been approved and 17 have been declined, as the IAAF attempts to clean up athletics.

In February the IAAF extended the ban on Russia’s team to the world championships this summer – Russia has been barred from international track and field competition since November 2015.

After the IAAF move in February, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said that Russian athletics coaches “don’t understand how to work without doping.”

The IAAF said then that Russian progress over doping was mixed, pointing to “unhelpful public comments recently made by some Russian sporting officials” – a possible reference to the outspoken Mutko, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The three other Russian athletes given the green light to compete internationally by the IAAF earlier this year were pole- vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova, sprinter Kristina Sivkova and hammer thrower Aleksei Sokirskii.

They too all met the “exceptional eligibility criteria.”