IAAF renews neutral status for 18 Russian athletes

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Eighteen Russians had their status as
Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) renewed by the International
Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) doping review board
on Thursday.
The IAAF received more than 80 applications from Russians
wanting to continue to compete as neutral athletes in 2018, with
priority given to those seeking to take part in the World Indoor
Championships in Birmingham in March.
Mariya Lasitskene, who won high jump gold at the 2015 and
2017 World Championships, was among those cleared to compete.
All 18 athletes were afforded ANA status in 2017.
Russia was banned by the IAAF in 2015 following an
independent World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into
allegations, still denied by Moscow, of state-sponsored doping.
Russian athletes, however, can be cleared to compete
internationally by demonstrating to the IAAF that their training
environment meets the required anti-doping standards.
The country has also been excluded by the International
Olympic Committee from this year's Winter Games, where Russians
can also compete as neutrals.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe said: “With access to new
information from WADA at the end of last year the Doping Review
Board is assessing all applications against this information as
well as existing information. It is a complex and lengthy
process."

List of athletes cleared:
Viktor Butenko (discus)
Danila Danilov (hammer throw)
Alexsey Fedorov (triple jump)
Irina Gumenyuk (triple jump)
Vyacheslav Kolesnichenko (sprints)
Mariya Lasitskene (high jump)
Aleksandr Lesnoy (shot put)
Alyona Lutkovskaya (pole vault)
Danil Lysenko (high jump)
Alaina Mamina (sprints)
Yuliya Maltseva (discus)
Polina Miller (sprints)
Ilya Mudrov (pole vault)
Olga Mullina (pole vault)
Sofiya Palkina (hammer throw)
Viktoriya Prokopenko (triple jump)
Anzhelika Sidorova (pole vault)
Aleksei Sokyrskii (hammer throw)

(Reporting by Peter Hall; Editing by Toby Davis)