MOSCOW: Vitaly Mutko has welcomed the decision of the IOC to delegate Olympic participation assessment to individual sports federations rather than impose a blanket ban on the country from next month’s Rio Games.

The Russian Minister of Sport, according to the TASS news agency, also expressed confidence in most of the potential members of the Russian team will be able to meet the ‘clean’ criteria demanded by the International Olympic Committee in an executive board meeting organised out of Lausanne.

Mutko said: “The “criteria applied to Russian competitors are very tough but most of them can meet these criteria, since 80pc of our athletes have been in the international testing pool. They regularly take part in competitions.

“We do not have any single competitor who has appeared in a major competition and then disappeared. On the whole, our team is composed of experienced athletes which provides a complete dossier to the international federations.

“So I hope that most of federations will allow Russians to participate at the Games.”

Mutko said that the Sports Ministry was “grateful” to the IOC for its decision.

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