MONACO/LONDON: Athletics’ international governing body has decided to maintain the status quo exclusion of Russia but it has decided to change its own name writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

From October – after the World Championships in Doha – the International Association of Athletics Federations (previously the International Amateur Athletics Association) will be known simply and sensibly as World Athletics (with, naturally, a new logo).

A council statement explained: “The new brand makes the sport more accessible to a wider audience while giving the global governing body the opportunity to more clearly communicate its mission as the leader of the world’s most participatory sport.”

President Lord Sebastian Coe said: “The hope is that our new brand will help attract and engage a new generation of young people to athletics. We have how created a brand that can come to life in the digital world while reflecting the changing nature of the sport and, at the same time bring into focus the athletes, the heroes of our sport.”

As for the Russian athletics federation, RusAF, that remains out in the cold.

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