LONDON, February 25. /TASS/. Russian track and field athletes may return to international competition once the conflict in Ukraine is resolved, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan.

"Clearly, the world is an uncertain complicated place... All wars end with a table map and people," Coe said. "If we get to a situation, and I hope we do, where an agreement is made and it meets with the satisfaction of both sides <...> if you get to that position, then it is far better to have people in your sport rather than sitting outside of it."

Russian track athletes were barred from international events in March 2022 in view of the developments in Ukraine. In 2017, Russian athletes were stripped of their right to compete internationally under the national flag and to the tune of the country’s anthem. They skipped the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, except for long jumper Daria Klishina, who was residing and training in the United States at that time.

Coe, 68, is running for International Olympic Committee (IOC) president. If he is elected the IOC president, Coe will have to resign from his post as the president of the world’s governing body of track and field athletics.

Seven candidates will vie for the IOC presidency at the organization’s 144th session in Greece between March 18 and 21.

The candidates are Sebastian Coe (Great Britain), Juan Antonio Samaranch (Spain), Morinari Watanabe (Japan), Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), David Lappartient (France), Johan Eliasch (Great Britain) and Prince Faisal bin Hussein (Jordan).

Current President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach announced last August that he would not run for another presidential term in the world’s governing Olympic body.