In his Sunday Telegraph column, the president of the global Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said he and his colleagues could “almost certainly” have done more to get to the heart of the scandal that has rocked the sport.
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Russia was suspended from worldwide athletics after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report accused its state security services of colluding with the country’s athletics federation to enable athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs with confidence test results would be suppressed. Everyone should be responsible for their own deeds, for whatever they’ve done.
“I read that document and it said there were other countries as well so there’s a lot more investigation that needs to be done”, he said.
From left: Sergey Shubenkov, the 2015 World Champion in the 110… “I welcome the fact that the ROC expressed its firm commitment to protect the clean athletes, and to sanction all the doped athletes and officials”, said Bach. “This is unfair towards honest, “clean” athletes”, Isinbayeva said. This situation has to be examined on a case-by-case basis.
Meanwhile, he claimed that the majority of Russian athletes have never taken doping. “I hope the [Russian] Sports Ministry will take all efforts to ensure that justice triumphs”, the pole vaulter said.
“That might well be a few recommendations that come forward when we do the second phase of our report”, McLaren told Australia’s ABC radio when asked if the IAAF could face a possible suspension from next year’s Rio Games.
However, the Independent Commission led by former WADA chief Dick Pound has exposed glaring deficiencies in the anti-doping fight and the urgent need for a new game plan.
In December 2014, German TV Channel ARD aired a series of documentaries on alleged doping abuse in Russian sports.
“We had to withhold a few information relating to the worldwide athletics federation because of the possibility that if we disclosed it, it would jeopardise ongoing criminal enquiries that are being conducted by the French police”.
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Isinbayeva, 33, for whom the upcoming Rio Olympics would be her fifth and last Games, wrote Saturday on Instagram she was “shocked” by the decision, after having implored the world athletics governing body for leniency. “I’m ready to fly to Portland for the world indoor championships”.
