The IAAF on Thursday authorised eight Russian athletes to resume competition under a neutral flag 20 months after banning the entire Russian squad over state-sponsored doping.

Hammer thrower Sergej Litvinov, fifth at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, is among athletes allowed to compete again after requesting permission from the IAAF's doping review board.

The list brings to 49 the number of Russians who have been allowed to compete as neutrals despite the official ban, which prevented Russian athletes from taking part in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. The Russian squad is also banned from next month's World Athletics Championships in London.

The ban was imposed after an independent report in 2015 uncovered widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian sport.

Others on the latest approved list are Sofia Palkina, 19, the women's hammer junior champion in 2015, promising pole vaulter Alena Lutkovskaia, Ilia Ivaniuk (high jump), Danil Lysenko (high jump), Valery Pronkin (hammer) Vladislav Saraykin (race walk) and Ekaterina Sokolenko (3000m steeplechase).

Source: AFP