Russian athletes have been banned from competing at the upcoming Oregon22 World Athletics Championships.

Olympic and two-time world high jump champion Maria Lasitskene has criticised International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in an open letter for his recommendation to ban Russian athletes and officials following the invasion of Ukraine.

Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis cleared a season's best of 6.05 metres before coming agonisingly close to a world record of 6.19m in Birmingham, following Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson's smashing of the British indoor 800 metres record.

Olympic high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene and two-time pole vault world champion Anzhelika Sidorova are among 22 Russian athletes to have been granted permission to compete internationally in 2022.

A 10-person shortlist for World Athletics' Female World Athlete of the Year honour has been released, with Jamaica's triple Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah and the European Female Athlete of the Year Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands headlining the nominees.

Olympic women’s high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene finished her season on a fresh high with victory on the opening day of the Diamond League Final in Zurich, as the destination of seven Diamond Trophies was determined on Sechseläutenplatz - one of the city’s most famous squares.

A host of Olympic gold medallists will be in attendance at the two-day Wanda Diamond League final which starts in Zürich tomorrow, with 32 champions due to emerge from those who have qualified in the course of this season’s previous 11 meetings.

Neeraj Chopra tonight became the first Indian to win an Olympic athletics title - and only the second Indian athlete after shooter Abhinav Bindra to win an individual gold.

Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith coped best in driving wind and rain to beat a stellar 100 metres field including United States rival Sha’Carri Richardson as England’s north-east town of Gateshead hosted the opening Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.

A convergence of three top women sprinters will ensure that tomorrow's opening Diamond League meeting of the season at Gateshead International Stadium is a must-watch.

Three-time world high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene and 2019 world pole vault champion Anzhelika Sidorova are among the first Russian athletes to be confirmed as Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) for the 2021 season following approval from the World Athletics Doping Review Board.

So news of the Russian Athletics Federation’s demise had been exaggerated.

Russian athletes, including three-time high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene, have written to the country's President, urging him to intervene in the dispute between World Athletics and the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).