Russia holds own Games for banned stars

Russia's banned track and field team are to compete in their own event in the wake of their Rio Olympics ban.

Russian authorities wanted to give the athletes some form of competition and scheduled a "Stars 2016" event.

Around 135 athletes will compete at Moscow's Znamensky Brothers Stadium on Thursday, under the guidance of national coach Yuriy Borzakovskiy.

"They include Olympic champions and medal holders as well as less renowned athletes forbidden to compete in Rio," Borzakovskiy told Russian news agency, TASS.

To increase competition, the tournament will also include athletes not originally selected in Russia's 68-strong squad.

The event will feature men's hurdling world champion Sergey Shubenkov and world champion high jumper Maria Kuchina.

Olympic champions Ivan Ukhov, Daniel Zyplakov, Dmitry Tarabin, Vera Rebrik and Ekaterina Koneva will also be there, while pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva will sit it out as she continues to fight the team-wide ban from Rio in the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia's track and field athletes have been banned indefinitely by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) since November last year, however their situation came to a head when the Court of Arbitration for sport last week rejected an appeal which could have allowed them to compete at the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee then opted against a blanket ban of Russians at the Games, despite a WADA-backed report which showed systematic state-backed doping programs in place between 2011 and 2015.

Instead, the IOC left the decision in the hand of individual sports, which has so far seen more than 100 athletes banned from competing at Rio.