Russia’s fencers and gymnasts cleared to compete at Rio Olympics

(Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Russia’s fencers and gymnasts are the latest to have been cleared by their international federation for next month’s Olympics.

So far no sport has followed the lead of the IAAF, who banned Russia as a result of state-sponsored doping. Today, the International Fencing Federation said they had retested 197 samples taken by Russian athletes from 2014 and 2016 and “they were all negative”.

As a result, it said the 16-strong team had been cleared for Rio.

Meanwhile, the Russian rhythmic gymnastics and trampolining teams have been cleared to compete.

The whistleblowers who exposed state-run doping in Russia have accused the IOC of trying to buy them off.

Vitaly Stepanov, a former employee at Russian Anti-Doping Agency Rusada, also warned the IOC had “no interest in clean sport” after it blocked his wife Yuliya Stepanova from competing at the Games.

Team GB athletes pose in their Rio 2016 kit

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Stepanova, who had also given chapter and verse about Russian doping to the World Anti-Doping Agency and IAAF, was invited by the IAAF to compete under a neutral flag in Rio but the IOC announced on Sunday no Russians who had served a ban for doping could take part.

In 2013, Stepanova was banned for two years for abnormalities in her blood passport.

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