Several tennis players from Russia and Belarus will compete in a tournament in Vilnius, even as Lithuania is campaigning to have Russian and Belarusian athletes barred from the 2024 Olympic Games.
Two Belarusians and one Russian will compete in the Vitas Gerulaitis Cup professional tennis tournament, LRT RADIO has reported.
They are Evgeny Donskoy of Russia and Belarus’ Ivan Liutarevich and Egor Gerasimov.
Ramūnas Grušas, head of the Lithuanian Tennis Association, says the organisers cannot exclude athletes due to the rules of the International Tennis Federation. He adds, however, that Lithuania’s authorities can take steps.
“We cannot theoretically or physically prohibit them from registering for that tournament and coming here, if they are allowed to cross our country’s border. We would be happy to have them banned, but today they enter our country and play where they can play. The ATP tour has left the possibility for tennis players from these countries to play under a neutral flag, and this is happening all over the world,” Grušas said.
Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sport Linas Obcarskas says he was not aware that athletes from Russia and Belarus had registered to play in this week’s tennis tournament in Lithuania.
Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen believes the athletes should be declared unwelcome in Lithuania.
“One of the toughest ways is to turn to the Foreign Ministry and consider the possibility of excluding one or another athlete by declaring them unwelcome,” she said.
Last week, Baltic and Polish sports ministers decided to turn to international sports federations and the International Olympic Committee with an appeal to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. The IOC has suggested that they could be allowed to compete in the Paris Games under neutral banner.
Read more: Baltics, Poland call on IOC to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from Olympics
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