International Olympic Committee shocked at Russia reprieve

Thomas Bach is the president of the IOC

International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has said that the decision to lift life bans for doping on 28 Russian athletes was "extremely disappointing and surprising."

In a strange twist, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) had on Thursday overturned the suspensions of 28 Russians, and partially upheld 11 other appeals.

"We would never have expected this," added the 64-year-old German.

He said that Olympic officials had asked Cas for an explanation for their ruling.

Surprisingly, Cas had ruled that there was "insufficient" evidence the athletes had benefited from a system of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Winter Games, hosted by Russia.

However, the IOC has rejected a request for 13 of the 28 athletes cleared by Cas - and two coaches - to be invited to take part in Pyeongchang.

A special IOC panel was set up to consider the request but it "agreed that the decision of the Cas had not lifted the suspicion of doping or given the panel sufficient confidence to recommend that those 13 athletes could be considered as clean".

Bach had earlier noted: "The absence of sanctions by Cas does not mean that you are entitled to receive an invitation from the IOC because receiving this invitation is a privilege of clean Russian athletes."