Russia names track team it wants to send to Rio

Russia named 68 athletes on Tuesday it wants to send to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro if its global ban from track and field is lifted.

The list approved by the suspended All-Russia Athletic Federation appears to contradict an earlier promise not to send any athletes who have previously been banned for doping offenses.

Former world indoor champion triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva makes the list even though she served a ban from 2007-09. Other notable athletes with past doping offenses have been left out.

ARAF promised in May not to select former dopers as it tried to persuade the IAAF to lift its suspension. That attempt failed last month when the IAAF upheld the ban.

"Any potential participant in the Olympics who has been found to have taken banned substances in previous years cannot be a member of the Russian national Olympic team in Rio," the federation said at the time.

ARAF said all 68 met Olympic qualifying standards and registered as plaintiffs in the Russian Olympic Committee's suit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport aiming to lift the ban on the Russia team. They have also been "confirmed by the ARAF main coaching council and presidium," the federation said.

Ruling will come by July 21

CAS is due to hear the claim on July 19 and rule by July 21.

Russia was suspended by the IAAF in November after a World Anti-Doping Agency report detailed widespread doping allegedly supported by the Russian state.

The list of 68 includes numerous potential medal contenders in Rio such as two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, world 110-meter hurdles champion Sergei Shubenkov, and Olympic high jump gold medalist Ivan Ukhov.

Olympic high jump gold medalist Anna Chicherova was cut from the Rio team after she was provisionally suspended by the IAAF for failing a retest of her sample from the 2008 Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee has said.

In a sign of the damage wrought by Russia's doping scandals, the list contains a severely weakened team of race walkers and no 800-metre runners. Russia won gold and bronze in the women's 800 in London, but both Russian medalists from that final were suspended after undercover footage appeared to show them confessing to doping. Numerous other Russian medalists from the 2012 Games have been implicated in doping scandals. Two walkers were stripped of gold and silver medals by a CAS ruling this year, while 3,000 steeplechase champion Yulia Zaripova is set to lose her gold medal after being banned. Discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova lost her silver medal in 2013.