Asked by insidethegames during a media briefing to comment on this month’s unanimous decision at the Olympic Summit to "explore" an offer by the Olympic Council of Asia to enable Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in its competitions, Coe - who said he had been unable to attend the Summit as it clashed with a family wedding - responded:

"The discussion that took place was fairly predictable.

"What did I take from it?

"The sanctions (against Russia and Belarus) remain.

"And in a way it’s a complicated landscape, but in many respects at World Athletics we’ve been through this complication already.

"I will always find, if it’s a navigable route through, a way for athletes to compete.

"My philosophy around the creation of the notion of Authorised Neutral Athletes, to separate the clean athletes from the tainted system, which was frankly pooh-poohed at the time, is now being considered as a sensible approach through.

"But all that being said, that navigable route can only be achieved if it is palatable and it is fair.

"Ultimately it has to be for the international governing bodies to make a judgement over which athletes should be eligible for competition.

"I was pleased that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reinforced that.

"They made two points.

"First of all the sanctions continued.

"Secondly that it will be up to the International Federations - because everything comes ultimately from them - to make a judgement.

"That’s fairly straightforward when it’s a World Championships because it’s our event.

"It becomes more complicated at an Olympics where you have National Olympic Committees sitting above the International Federations.

"They claim to select, they don’t really select, we provide the eligibility and they rubber-stamp, but the Olympic Games are the IOC’s gig so they can frankly decide how they approach that.

"But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have discussions about how you find that navigable route through.

"I think that was what was being said at the time - I don’t really read any more or less into it than that."

The Summit was chaired by IOC President Thomas Bach, who in recent weeks has warmed to the theme of keeping politics out of sport.

Regarding the exclusion of athletes from major events solely because of their nationality, the German official has insisted the international sports community should "explore ways to overcome this dilemma."

In October Bach told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera it was the IOC’s mission to be politically neutral and "to have the Olympic Games, and to have sport in general, as something that still unifies people and humanity.

"For all these reasons, we are in a real dilemma at this moment with regard to the Russian invasion in Ukraine," he suggested.

"We also have to see, and to study, to monitor, how and when we can come back to accomplish our mission to have everybody back again, under which format whatsoever."

Meanwhile the World Athletics ban on Russian and Belarus athletes remains in place, as does the ban on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), applied in November 2015 in response to the Russian doping crisis.

The latter has kept all Russian athletes out of the frame save for those who have been able to show sufficient anti-doping records to qualify as Authorised Neutral Athletes - although even this latter category no longer operates following the more recent ban.

At last month’s World Athletics Council meeting Rune Andersen, chair of the Taskforce working for the reinstatement of RUSADA, said there was "a new culture of good governance and zero tolerance for doping throughout the organisation".

He added that "the Taskforce expects to be in a position by March 2023 to make a final recommendation to Council on the reinstatement of RusAF" - although this was subject to several conditions which he went on to explain.

Asked for his thoughts on the RUSADA situation, Coe said: "The Russian Taskforce will report back to the Council in March.

"I’m not really commenting on anything until we have that report.

"I don’t know what they will report back.

"Rune certainly reported to our Council that he saw some light at the end of the tunnel but it will be the Taskforce’s decision over whether the reinstatement criteria have been fulfilled and that will be reported back to us."