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IAAF confirms Russia's ban from world athletics remains, despite anti-doping progress

Athletics has been clouded in controversy in recent months
Image: Russia remain suspended from competing on the world athletics stage

Russia's ban from world athletics has been extended, with the IAAF needing more time to investigate their progress in improving their anti-doping record.

Rune Andersen, president of the task force looking into Russian reforms after November's suspension, said 'significant progress' had been made but not enough to justify lifting the sanctions.

"The view of the task force is that there is significant work still to be done to satisfy the reinstatement conditions," Andersen said.

"We still need to interview athletes and coaches named in the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commission report to understand the scope and nature of previous doping activities."

IAAF president Sebastian Coe said a final decision on Russia's reinstatement might not be made until May, only three months before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Coe said: "While progress has been made, the council unanimously agreed that the Russian authorities need to undertake further significant work to satisfy the reinstatement condition, (so) RUSAF (the Russian Athletic Federation) should not be reinstated to the IAAF at this stage.

"My job is not to get as many athletes to the Olympic Games as possible. The job of the council is to make sure those athletes who are going to the Games are clean under systems based on integrity.

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"There were no pre-ordained outcomes today. We were satisfied, unanimously, that more work needed to be done, although some progress has been made, before we can be asked to make the decision."

The Rio athletics programme begins on August 12, but a May reinstatement could make it tough for Russian athletes to record Olympic qualifying times.

Lord Sebastian Coe, President of the IAAF answers questions from the media during a press conference in Monaco, November 2015
Image: IAAF president Sebastian Coe said Russia needs to show more while identifying five other countries needing 'critical care'

Russia were banned in November following a report by an independent WADA commission that found evidence of state-sponsored doping and large-scale corruption in Russian athletics.

Further to the Russia update, the IAAF also identified five other countries in 'critical care' regarding their drug-testing systems, although none has yet been handed any sanction.

"Ethiopia and Morocco - as a matter of urgency - need a robust testing programme put in place," Coe added. "Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus need to get compliant by the end of the year."

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