World Athletics has cleared six Russian athletes to compete at next month's European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon ©European Athletics

A group of six runners from Russia have been cleared by World Athletics to compete in next month's European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, it has been announced.

The World Athletics Doping Review Board has agreed that the applications of the athletes have met the exceptional eligibility criteria to compete in the Championships on December 8 as neutral athletes under competition Rule 22.1A(b) while the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) remains suspended.

The RusAF has been banned since November 2015 because of allegations of state-supported doping - meaning this will be the fifth consecutive edition of the European Cross Country Championships at which they have been unable to compete under their own flag. 

The World Athletics Doping Review Board, composed of chair Robert Hersh from the United States, Sylvia Barlag from The Netherlands and Antti Pihlakoski from Finland, has so far this year cleared 135 Russian athletes in a number of disciplines to compete in a number of events ranging from the World Championships in Doha to the European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku.

The latest group is led by Russia's junior indoor 3,000 metres champion Lilia Mendaeva and Ildar Nadyrov, a silver medallist in the 1,500m at this year's Russian indoor championships.

They will compete in the senior women and men's races in the Portuguese capital, although they are not expected to be among the medal contenders.

Russia has not competed under its own flag at the European Cross Country Championships since 2014 after it was banned in November 2015 following allegations of state-supported doping ©Getty Images
Russia has not competed under its own flag at the European Cross Country Championships since 2014 after it was banned in November 2015 following allegations of state-supported doping ©Getty Images

Ekaterina Domnina, Ksenia Kuznetsova and Irina Shipitsyna have been given permission to compete in the women's under-20 and Artem Popov in the men's under-20 event. 

The participation of all these athletes as neutral athletes in international competition is still subject to formalities for eligibility, under World Athletics rules, being completed and subject to acceptance of their entries by European Athletics as the meeting organiser.

So far this year, 58 applications have been rejected by World Athletics and one neutral athlete status has been revoked.

The status of the RusAF is due to be discussed at the next meeting of the World Athletics Council in Monte Carlo on Friday (November 22).

There, however, is not expected to be any change in their status.

The World Anti-Doping Agency are currently investigating whether Russia manipulated data when it gave them access to information from the Moscow Laboratory in January.