‘99% of athletes clean,’ says outgoing boss Diack
Print Edition
OUTGOING athletics boss Lamine Diack yesterday warned that the sport could implode if it failed to defeat drug cheats, but rejected comparisons to cycling.
“We are not cycling,” Diack told a Beijing news conference a day after Britain’s Sebastian Coe was elected as his successor.
“We invented out of competition tests, we pushed for (world anti-doping agency) WADA to be created because we wanted governments and sports federations to work hand in hand.
“We have no lesson to be taught by any other sport,” he said in an impassioned defence of the sport two days before the start of the Athletics World Championships in Beijing.
“We conduct 3,000 tests a year and 200 come back positive. You focus only on the bad news. But trust us, we cannot afford to have our performances in doubt. If there is any doubt, it’s all over. But we are convinced 99 percent of our athletes are clean.”
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has come under fire after claims that data from 12,000 blood tests between 2001 and 2012 revealed suspicious results and that 50 Olympic and world gold medals could be tainted by drug use.
Track and field’s world governing body has vehemently denied allegations of a cover-up for failing to follow up on suspicious test results.
Twenty-eight track and field athletes were suspended by the IAAF last week after samples from the 2005 and 2007 world championships were retested, although they have yet to name and shame the athletes implicated due to legal reasons.
“We will let the commission work and when they’re ready, we’ll be notified,” said Diack.
“The next president has been very clear that he has zero tolerance for drug cheats and that is our standard.”
Coe says he will devote more resources to anti-doping and set up an independent unit.
Much focus of the world championships will be on Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and his battle in the men’s 100 meters with American Justin Gatlin, who has twice tested positive for banned substances.
Bolt yesterday expressed his sadness that doping issues rather than track talk were dominating the build-up to the world championships.
“All I’ve been hearing over the past couple of weeks is doping, doping, doping,” said Bolt. “It’s definitely sad.”
Meanwhile, an anti-doping official yesterday told Xinhua news agency that no Chinese athletes are mentioned in the current doping allegations.
“We are not able to get hold of a copy of the detailed report but from what I know, there are no Chinese athletes mentioned by now,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
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