UCI head Brian Cookson: Athletics faces long fight after Russia scandal
Wednesday 18 November 2015 13:34, UK
International Cycling Union president Brian Cookson has warned it will take a long time to clean up athletics.
The sport was plunged into crisis last week when Russian athletes were provisionally suspended from international competition after an investigation by a World Anti-Doping Agency commission alleged "state-sponsored doping".
Cycling has experienced similar scandals in the past 20 years, with the Festina affair at the 1998 Tour de France being followed by the Operacion Puerto doping investigation in Spain and then Lance Armstrong confessing to cheating in 2013.
Cookson began a clean-up of cycling after being elected UCI president in 2013 and knows from first-hand experience the difficulties athletics faces.
He told Sky Sports News HQ: "I do think there will be a need for other sports to do what we have done, but equally, we have still got some work to do and our experience shows that these things take a heck of a long time."
Cycling's various doping scandals earned it a reputation as doped sport and while Cookson admits it was not an unwarranted tag, he believes its problems have been no worse than those present in other sports.
He added: "I do feel slightly vindicated, yes. I do feel that this is something that other sports are going to have to face more seriously now, and I don't think we're just talking about athletics here; I think we are talking about other professional sports.
"I'm sure that the people in professional cycling are no more morally challenged than in any other sport or any other field of human activity, for that matter."
