Russia limited to 10 track and field athletes at Tokyo Olympics

A maximum of 10 Russian track and field competitors will be permitted at this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo under sanctions issued against the country by World Athletics.

World Athletics passed the latest sanctions after the Russian track federation's new president, Evgeniy Yurchenko, accepted charges that fake documents were used under the previous management to give a top athlete an alibi for missing a doping test.

The governing body will restart a system to vet Russian competitors and allow them to compete as neutral athletes. They will be limited to 10 athletes at major events, but that limit can be raised later if World Athletics feels Russia is making progress on reforms.

World Athletics president, Lord Sebastian Coe, said: "The package of sanctions approved by the Council today reflects the seriousness of RusAF's wrongdoing and sends a clear message that we take these types of offences by our member federations extremely seriously.

"We have consistently tried to separate the clean athletes from a tainted system, which is why we have reinstated the ANA (Authorised Neutral Athletes) process for athletes from Russia, enabling them to once again compete in international one-day competitions and earn prize money, but we have restricted the number of athletes eligible to compete in senior international and European events, including at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games." Coe added.

RusAF has also been fined $10m (£7.92m) for breaches of the sport's anti-doping rules. It must pay $fivem dollars of the fine by July 1, with the remainder suspended for two years, to be paid if the federation commits another anti-doping offence or fails to make what World Athletics considers meaningful progress.

Russia was allowed to field only one athlete in track and field at the 2016 Olympics, the U.S.-based long jumper Darya Klishina.

Russia sent 29 officially neutral athletes to last year's world championships, winning six medals.