The Court of Abitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday upheld the ban against Russia's athletics federation - but was careful to stress that it could not decide what this would mean for next month's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The ruling upheld the stance of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), namely that Russia's track and field federation (the ARAF) cannot name athletes to compete at Rio. Russian athletes that have demonstrated they are clean to the international authorities, however, could be nominated for competition in Rio by Russia's Olympic federation (the ROC).

"As a consequence, the CAS Panel confirmed that the ROC is not entitled to nominate Russian track and field athletes to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games considering that they are not eligible to participate under the IAAF competition rules," the CAS ruling said. "However, the ROC is entitled to enter as representatives of the Russian Federation in the 2016 Olympic Games the Russian track and field athletes who fulfil the criteria and are eligible to compete under IAAF Competition Rule 22.1A."

The verdict continued, however, to stress that the CAS had "no jurisdiction" to decide what the IOC should do if Russia does seek to nominate some of its track and field stars and bypass its banned athletics federation. The ruling also said that for the same reason, "the CAS found that it had no jurisdiction to determine whether the IOC is entitled to accept or refuse the entry either as representatives of the Russian Federation or as 'neutral athletes' of the Russian track and field athletes entered by the ROC."

The IAAF had suggested the idea of clean Russians competing under neutral colors in its competitions, and plans to use this system as an interim solution. But the situtation at an Olympic event is more complex. IOC President Thomas Bach has already said that this could be difficult at the Olympics, because any Russians allowed in would also represent Russia's Olympic federation, which is not currently banned.

The IOC had said it hoped to reach a decision on Russia's status at the Rio Olympics by Tuesdsay of next week. This verdict from the CAS effectively leaves the IOC with almost all its options open - had the CAS supported the Russian appeal, the blanket ban, which some organizations have called for, might have proven very difficult to implement.

(DW)