Sport

Sports court puts Russian appeal on fast track

The IAAF announced late last month that it amended the organization's regulations in order to allow field and track athletes from Russian Federation to submit individual applications for worldwide tournaments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had described the ban as "unfair" while former Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva, described the ban as a " human rights violation".

TOKYO • Standing before 300 Japanese athletes about to leave for the Rio Olympics, the head of the organising committee for the Tokyo Games in 2020 issued a stark warning: Sing the national anthem with gusto or consider yourselves unfit to represent your country.

Olympic gold medalist Asli Cakir Alptekin of Turkey has been cleared to race again as she appeals an eight-year doping suspension.

"The parties have agreed to an expedited procedure which should conclude on 21 July 2016 with the issuance of the final decision".

Russian tennis star Svetlana Kuznetsova said on Sunday that politics is the main reason that Russia's track and field athletes were banned from this summer's Olympics in Brazil.

New Zealand has 11 of a possible 14 boats qualified for the Rio Games.

In a busy period for CAS, the Lausanne-based court is also hearing an appeal from Turkish middle-distance runner Asli Cakir Alptekin on Monday.

CAS is already mediating efforts to settle a dispute between Russian Federation, its athletes and the governing body of world athletics over their participation in the Rio Olympic Games.

"I hope they resolve it. And the clean athletes who deserve to go to the Olympics, they will go".

The ban was first put in place last November and confirmed last month, when the IAAF said there were still considerable problems with anti-doping in Russian Federation.

The court did not provide a list of the 68 athletes involved in the case, but it likely includes most potential Olympians with no positive drug tests on their record.

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Sports court puts Russian appeal on fast track