Athletics | IAAF clears 2 Russian world champions, 5 others to compete

Sergei Shubenkov

Maria Kuchina

The IAAF has approved seven Russian athletes, including two world champions, to compete internationally while their country is banned for doping.

The IAAF says it has approved 10 Russians this year to compete as neutrals who were banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

They include 110-meter hurdler Sergei Shubenkov and high jumper Maria Kuchina.

They won 2015 worlds gold medals in Beijing and could defend their titles in London in August.

To be approved, athletes must show they have been adequately tested for drugs over a lengthy period by non-Russian agencies.

The IAAF says the athletes are still “subject to acceptance of their entries by individual meeting organizers” such as the Diamond League series. The 14-meet May-to-September circuit opens on May 5 at Doha, Qatar.

Shubenkov is set to be in demand as the world champion, worlds bronze medalist in 2013 and two-time European champion.

Shubenkov and Kuchina, a past world and European indoor champion, were unable to compete at the European indoors in Serbia last month while their cases were under review.

“There can be no time constraints on a process which has been established to safeguard the rights and aspirations of the world’s clean athletes and is about rebuilding confidence in competition,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

“I’m as pleased as it’s possible to be in this situation,” she told Russian agency R-Sport. “This was always our legal right. This should not have had to happen.”

The IAAF said the other approved athletes were: high jumper Daniil Tsyplakov, who placed fifth at the 2015 worlds, pole vaulters Illia Mudrov and Olga Mullina, and race walkers Sergey Shirobokov and Yana Smerdova.

The 18-year-old Shirobokov, who won the Russian title in February, comes from Russia’s main race-walk training center in the city of Saransk, which has been linked to more than 25 doping cases.

The IAAF previously cleared three Russians to compete as neutrals last month — pole vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova, sprinter Kristina Sivakova and hammer thrower Alexei Sokirsky. AP