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Russia organise tournament for athletes banned from Rio 2016 Olympics

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Russian track-and-field athletes banned from competing in the Rio 2016 Olympics will take part in a domestic tournament organized by the All-Russian Athletics Federation (RAF), Yuri Borzakovsky, the head coach of the Russian athletics squad, told TASS.

The Stars-2016 tournament will take place at the Znamensky Brothers stadium in Moscow on July 28.

“About 135 track-and-field athletes are going to compete. They include Olympic champions and medal holders as well as less renowned athletes forbidden to compete in Rio. Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva will not compete. She has decided to have a rest after such a hard season,” Borzakovsky stressed.

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The track-and-field athletes who will compete in Moscow on Thursday include hurdle racer Sergei Shubenkov, incumbent world champion in a 110-meters race; high jumpers Maria Kuchina, Olympic Champion Ivan Ukhov and Daniil Tsyplakov; javeline throwers Dmitry Tarabin and Vera Rebrik; triple jumper Yekaterina Koneva.

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier on Wednesday at a meeting with the Russian Olympic team stated that the absence of a number of Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics will “devalue” the medal events.

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“It is obvious that the absence of Russian athletes, the leaders in many sports events, significantly reduces the intensity of the competition, and hence makes the upcoming events less spectacular.

“I think that your colleagues from other world’s leading sports powers also understand that the quality of their medals will be different, because it’s one thing to defeat an equal, strong opponent, and quite another – to compete with obviously weaker opponents. Such victory has a very different taste or maybe bad taste”, Putin said.

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