Russian sailor gets initial go-ahead for Rio

Sailing's governing body has reversed its ruling on Russian Pavel Sozykin, saying he would now be eligible to compete at the Rio Olympics.

World Sailing said that having received additional guidance from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), its board members were unanimous in declaring the athlete free to compete.

The body said Sozykin’s entry must still be confirmed by the IOC and the review panel established through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Last month, World Sailing said Sozykin had been denied eligibility for the Rio games because of the findings of the McLaren report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Fellow Russian competitors Stefania Elfutina, Maxim Oberemko, Lyudmila Dmitrieva, Alisa Kirilyuk, Sergey Komissarov and Denis Gribanov were cleared to take part in Rio.

The IOC opted not to ban all Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics after revelations of a wide state-backed doping programme across many sports.

Instead, the guardians of the Games chose a set of criteria for athletes to meet, including a clean doping past and sufficient testing at international events. Those criteria have so far allowed more than 250 out of the original 387 Russian athletes to be cleared for Rio.

The IOC issued new guidance on Tuesday, World Sailing said, advising an athlete should not be considered as “implicated” if the McLaren list does not refer to a prohibited substance which would have given rise to an anti-doping rules violation.

“In the case of Mr Sozykin, though he was identified in the McLaren Report in connection with the Disappearing Positive Methodology, the report did not include specific information as to whether the positive test occurred in-competition or out-of-competition,” World Sailing said.

“Further, the substance for which he tested positive is not prohibited out-of-competition and, if the sample had been taken out-of-competition, would not have resulted in a sanction.”

World Sailing noted that Sozykin had had at least two subsequent anti-doping tests with no adverse results.

Sozykin competes in the Men’s 470 Class.