Dmitry Shlyakhtin, President of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF), has claimed five Russian walkers whose Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) status was revoked today are "partially guilty" of bringing the ruling upon themselves.

An electronic detection system project to create a definitive judging system for race walking events in time for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) 2019 World Championships has now moved to the design stage, the IAAF Council heard on the first of their two days of meetings here.

The Chinese city of Taicang will host the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Race Walking Team Championships in 2018 that were originally awarded to the Russian city of Cheboksary.

World indoor high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi has said that fellow Italian Alex Schwazer, the 2008 Olympic 50 kilometres walk champion, who returned from a four-year doping ban last month to win a gold medal at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Race Walking Team Championships, should not have been allowed to represent his country, calling him “the Shame of Italy.”

Australia’s Jared Tallent has criticised the decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to allow Italy’s Alex Schwazer - who was returning from a three-and-a half year doping ban – to compete at the World Race Walking Team Championships.

China took full advantage of Russia’s enforced absence from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Race Walking Team Championships in Rome as they ended the first day with golds in both the men’s and women’s 20 kilometre events.

Rome, which has had just four months to prepare for this weekend’s International Association of Athletics Federations’ World Race Walking Team Championships – switched from Cheboksary following the suspension of the All-Russia Athletic Federation pending doping investigations – is dedicating the event to its 1997 world champion Annarita Sidoti, who died of breast cancer last year aged 45.