The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Tuesday upheld a ban against Russia’s Athletics Federation (RUSAF) over doping in the country.

RUSAF has been suspended since 2015 over a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that found evidence of widespread and state-sponsored doping in the sport.

Since then, some individual Russian athletes, however, have been allowed to compete internationally as neutrals.

This was however on the condition of their meeting certain criteria that showed they had operated in a dope-free environment.

But the national athletics team was banned from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

IAAF’s Russia Task Force head, Rune Andersen, had said in July that RUSAF had made significant but not complete progress in meeting the reinstatement requirements.

To be reinstated, IAAF had said Russia must acknowledge findings of the WADA-commissioned McLaren report which indicated that doping in the country was state-sponsored.