Russian officials criticize denial of Olympic appeals

Russian sports officials have vowed to continue fighting a ban on their track team, expressing anger a day after they say scores of appeals filed by their athletes were rejected.

The Russian track federation – suspected of systemic doping and banned from international competition last year – has been looking for some way to get its athletes into the 2016 Summer Olympics next month.

The IAAF – which governs track worldwide – recently upheld the team ban but left individual athletes the option of appealing to compete as “neutrals.” The international federation said it received 136 such applications.

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On Sunday, the Russians said they had been informed 67 of those appeals had been denied, with only long jumper Daria Klishina approved.

“Our athletes are punished for some abstract, hardly legally punishable action, actually on suspicion,” Vitaly Mutko, the country’s minister of sport, told the Tass news agency on Monday. “This is a very contentious and quite incomprehensive moment, to say nothing about the fact that the IAAF didn’t even take the effort to read the applications.”

Yulia Stepanova, an 800-meter runner who cooperated with antidoping authorities, has also been approved.

As for the remainder of the team, Russian officials said they remain hopeful about a legal challenge filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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