00:00World Athletics is not planning to ease restrictions on Russian athletes anytime soon.
00:05That was stated by the Federation's President Sir Sebastian Kou, who spoke exclusively to Euronews.
00:10The International Olympic Committee has announced that it is easing its own restrictions,
00:14but has said that each international federation must make its own decision on the matter.
00:19The Russian Athletics Federation, along with groups of Russian athletes,
00:22has appealed to the Court of Administration for Sport,
00:24as well as to the Human Rights Committees of the IOC and the UN.
00:27The Executive Director of the Russian Athletics Federation, Boris Yaryshevski,
00:31has claimed that Kou has a personal vendetta against Russian athletes.
00:35We will maintain our position and we will defend our position.
00:38We're fighting for the integrity of competition and the integrity of competitors
00:44and the primacy of an international federation to decide how it determines eligibility.
00:50It is not a personal issue, it is one of philosophy.
00:54The first ever Ultimate Championship was held this year in Budapest,
00:57bringing together some of the world's top athletes to compete for the title of Ultimate Champion,
01:02as well as substantial prize money.
01:04I hope it's a very, very strong legacy because we're looking at the sport in a very different way.
01:10We want this to feel different, to look different, particularly for the athletes.
01:15The prize money is significantly larger than we've ever had before, 10 million dollars.
01:21And the format is significantly different because it's not a full world championships with 2.000 athletes.
01:29It's 381 from 65 different countries.
01:33But it really does determine the best of the best.
01:36Sebastian Coe took the helm of what was then known as the EAAF in 2015.
01:43We asked him to briefly summarize his most significant achievements during his time at the Federation.
01:49We've worked really hard to put governance, safeguards, checks and balances in place.
01:54We have an athletic integrity unit that now has made independent all our drug testing,
02:02but also our integrity programs, the way we manage ourselves during elections.
02:07All that is very, very different.
02:10I'm very pleased that we are the only Olympic sport that has a gender balance council.
02:17We have 26 members, 13 men, 13 women, and each and every one of them is there on merit.
02:23The next president of the World Athletics will be elected next September.
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