Russians offered hope for the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games

Russian Paralympians have been granted special dispensation from a blanket doping ban to take part in 2018 Winter Games qualifiers as neutrals, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said on Wednesday.

The IPC however has maintained a ban on the Russian Paralympic Committee until a further doping review in November.

Russia were warned they would be barred from the South Korea-hosted 2018 Winter Games unless "something dramatically changes" regarding doping when the IPC last maintained the ban in May 2017.

On Wednesday however the IPC softened its stance slightly.

"The IPC governing board has decided to maintain the suspension of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), with a further review due in November 2017", the IPC said.

"However, it has put in place a limited interim measure for Russian athletes to compete as neutrals in qualification events across four sports for the the 2018 Winter Games, subject to meeting certain published conditions," it added.

Alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon and cross-country are the four disciplines open to the Russians.

"We do not want to have a situation where Russian athletes have insufficient events left to qualify for PyeongChang 2018 should the RPC meet the reinstatement criteria, explained Philip Craven, president of the IPC.

The Russian sports minister Pavel Kolobkov said he had expected as much.

"We will analyse the situation and form a common position," Kolobkov told Russia's R-Sport.

Russia were suspended by the IPC in August 2016 following revelations of widespread state-sponsored doping uncovered in a report by Richard McLaren on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which also saw the country's track and field team banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Source: AFP