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LORD COE would welcome Russia back to the World Championships in 2019 as it would prove they have addressed their doping issues.
The president of the IAAF, athletics’ governing body, believes the country has made progress, ahead of the close of 2017 championships in London on Sunday.
Earlier this month the IAAF congress voted to continue the Russian federation’s ban, which has been in place since the extent of the country’s state-sponsored doping programme first emerged in November 2015.
This prevented Russia from sending an athletics team to the Rio Olympics and meant they had 19 neutral athletes in London but Coe (right) would be happy to see them in Doha in two years.
“Yes, because it will mean we are satisfied they have come from a clean environment and I think this was a good interim position,” he said.
“The guiding principle for me is what could we do to separate the clean athletes from the tainted system – which is why we have had our doping review board go through every application.
“There are signs of good progress. And if we get them back next year, or the year after, it will be because they have met the criteria.”
The IAAF is also looking to reintroduce gender testing with South Africa’s Caster Semenya having been scrutinised for high levels of testosterone ever since emerging as 800m world champion in 2009, aged 18.
The IAAF wants to reinstate rules limiting how much testosterone female athletes can have in their bodies following research into hyperandrogenism.
The rule had been suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for two years in July 2015 and now the IAAF wants it to return. But Coe does not want the body to hound athletes.
He said: “Look, this is an incredibly sensitive subject. We are all fathers and brothers. I don’t want athletes being demonised but it is the responsibility of the federation to create a level playing field in female sport.
“We don’t want to turn this into a witch hunt or demonising athletes. Nobody is choosing to cheat here. This is not an anti-doping issue – it is a biological one. And it is a societal issue as well. “It is inevitable that there is going to be conjecture and people will feel very strongly about it, but I don’t want our sport to enter or emerge from this process as being rabid or intolerant of the situation or the condition. “But my ultimate responsibility is to make sure this gets resolved and I think it has to be.”