World Athletics president says the global track and field governing body will not budge when it comes to allowing Russians and Belarusians back into the sport

Seb Coe insists World Athletics will not lift its ban on Russian and Belarus athletes despite the International Olympic Committee this week announcing that sportsmen and women from those two nations will now be allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics as long as they have not supported the war in Ukraine.

You may well see some neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus in Paris, but they just wont be in from athletics, said World Athletics president Coe, who was speaking at the end of a two-day World Athletics council meeting in Monaco. The position our sport took and has consistently taken on this is unchanged.

He added: We have a fixed position and thats not altered and I think its right that international federations should make judgements that they feel are in the best interests of their sport and thats what our council has done.

Ours is a settled position. Weve made the judgement that there will be no fully fledged or even neutral status athletes there.

At the moment only 12 Russian and six Belarusian athletes have Olympic standards for Paris with their leading medal contenders being high jumpers Mariya Lasitskene and Danil Lysenko plus pole vaulter Anzhelika Sidirova.

The IOC has controversially decided that people who qualify in individual sports will have to compete as neutral athletes in Paris with no flags, emblems or anthems. Whats more, Russian and Belarusian teams will remain banned.

Coe also gave short shrift to the idea of a friendship games being held next year in Russia. Im not getting too excited about that, he said. It doesnt really fit within our own values and competitions structures. There also isnt much room for it in an already complex and complicated calendar.

This week the World Athletics Council also confirmed the members of a Working Group, to be chaired by Francis Dodoo, on the status of Russians and Belarusians in international events.

In other news from Coes press conference