IAAF renews neutral status for 18 Russian athletes

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)