1ST LEAD 32 Russians go to CAS in late bid to compete at Pyeongchang Games By Barry Whelan, dpa

Pyeongchang, South Korea (dpa) - Another 32 Russian athletes have gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to press their claims to be able to compete at the Winter Olympics.The athletes, including six-time Olympic gold medallist Viktor Ahn, world cross-country skiing champion Sergei Ustyugov, world biathlete champion Anton Shipulin, are challenging the International Olympic Committee‘s decision not to invite them to the Pyeongchang Games.CAS said a hearing is likely to be held by its ad hoc division on Wednesday - two days before the opening of the Games - and a decision communicated as soon as possible.The Russian athletes were among those not invited by the IOC following a vetting procedure by its invitation review panel.This took account of a wide-ranging number of criteria ranging from suspicion in connection with doping practices in Russia and at the Sochi 2014 Games, including information from the restored database of Moscow‘s anti-doping laboratory. As well as short-track speed skating great Ahn, Ustyugov and Shipulin, the excluded athletes appealing to CAS include figure skater Ksenia Stolbova, who won a team gold medal at the Sochi Games, and Ruslan Zakharov, who was a short track relay gold medallist in Sochi.Ahn had complained in a open letter to IOC president Thomas Bach over the decision not to invite him. He won three golds at the Sochi 2014 Games after becoming a Russian citizen, after winning three golds in 2006 in Turin for South Korea when he was then named Ahn Hyun Soo.The IOC has invited 169 Russian athletes to compete as neutrals following the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee over doping. It said those not invited were not necessarily doping offenders."Not being included on the invitation list does not necessarily mean that an athlete has been doped - it should not automatically cast doubt on their integrity," Valerie Fourneyron, who chairs the invitation review panel, said.Separately 28 Russians have had Olympic life bans in connection with doping practices overturned by CAS. The Lausanne-based tribunal reduced the bans of 11 other Russians to just the February 9-25 Games.On Sunday, the IOC turned down a Russian request to allow 13 athletes and two coaches, who were among the 28 to have their bans lifted, to take part in the Games.Russian athletes in Pyeongchang are competing as Olympic Athletes from Russia and may not use the Russian flag or national emblems.However IOC president Thomas Bach said Monday the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee could be lifted in time for the closing ceremony. The review panel will be advising the IOC executive board on the matter, he said.