No immediate return for Russia to athletics events

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:32 a.m. ET

foxsports

MONACO (AP) The head of an athletics taskforce tasked with assessing Russia's efforts to tackle its deep-rooted doping problem says he will have no decision before February on whether the country should be allowed back into international competition.

But Rune Andersen says Russia is making progress.

Its athletes have been suspended since November 2015, after a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation detailed the extent of Russian doping and doping cover-ups.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe says, ''We are making progress,'' but also noted the Russian system ''cataclysmically failed clean athletes'' in the past.