Russia remains banned from athletics

Russia's ban from global athletics will continue until at least February.The country has been banned from competition by the sport's world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since November 2015 over state-sponsored doping and missed the Rio Olympics.
●    The head of the IAAF taskforce set up to assess Russia's anti-doping progress revealed that, although the country had made progress towards the conditions of their readmission to the international fold, they were still not ready to return.
●    There are no major athletics championships before February.
●    In the meantime, Russian athletes can still apply to the IAAF doping review board to compete if they can demonstrate they have undergone a testing system, as the US-based long jumper Darya Klishina did successfully for the Rio Games.
●    The ban has led to Russian athletes missing the Olympics in Brazil and its current extension means the bulk of them will also likely miss the March 3-5 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.