Italian pursuit team replaces Russia in track cycling event

The Italian men’s pursuit team was added to the track cycling programme at the Olympics on Friday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the decision to bar Russia’s squad from competing.

Kiril Sveshnikov, Dmitry Sokolov and Dmitry Strakhov appealed to CAS after they were included in the McLaren report that detailed statedirected doping across numerous winter and summer sports.

Their pursuit teammate Sergey Shilov was cleared to compete in Saturday’s road race and presumably could have ridden on the track, while teammate Viktor Manakov had never been implicated.

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, told The Associated Press that it consulted with the IOC before re- allocating Russia’s vacated team pursuit spot to Italy.

Italian riders Filippo Ganna, Liam Bertazzo, Simone Consonni and Francesco Lamon will fly to Brazil this weekend to join teammate Elia Viviani, who is already in Rio de Janeiro to contest the omnium.

The qualifying round of the men’s team pursuit is on Thursday.