Sebastian Coe defends state of athletics following Russian doping scandal
Last Updated: 12/12/14 2:33am
Sebastian Coe has defended the state of athletics following the Russian doping scandal, claiming it is only a small number of countries that are disproportionately damaging the sport.
A German documentary has alleged that as many as 99% of Russian athletes are guilty of doping and also suggested the sport’s world governing body the IAAF have been covering up the problem.
The scandal follows Coe’s announcement that he will run for IAAF president next year.
We have to be very clear that this is a very, very difficult time for our sport.
Sebastian Coe
"They are very serious allegations,” he said. “The very fact that the allegations are in the public domain means that they are serious.
"You have to say that the scope and scale of these allegations takes it beyond simply a competitor deciding to step beyond the moral boundary.
“But you do have to say a disproportionate amount of the reputational damage is in a relatively small number of countries, and I think we have to recognise this. This is not in every country of the world - there are 213 federations."
Lord Coe insisted Lamine Diack, who is the current president of the IAAF, was fully behind the investigation, despite French sports daily L'Equipe raising questions over meetings in Moscow hotels in 2011 between Diack's son Massata Papa Diack, Habib Cisse - who serves as a legal adviser for the IAAF - and the president of the Russian athletics federation Valentin Balakhnichev.
“I think Lamine is very clear,” said Coe. “He will wait for the investigation and if names are in the fray then those names will be subject to that investigation.
"He's certainly not curtailing the work of the ethics committee nor could you - it's Michael Beloff, one of the top QCs in the world."
Coe, who is hoping to succeed Diack as president of the IAAF in 2015 said the latest transcripts of the programme have now been sent to the IAAF Council, the body's ethics committee, to the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has said the country will cooperate with a World Anti-Doping Agency inquiry into the allegations of widespread doping.
However, Mutko insisted the accusations made by many of those in the film should be treated with scepticism.
He said banned athletes ‘try to justify themselves by shifting everything onto a wrong system.’
Coe went on to indicate that he would be in favour of publishing the ethics committee's investigation, and confirmed that IAAF rules would allow Russia to be declared non-compliant if the allegations are judged to be proved.
Athletes including Dai Greene and Paula Radcliffe have expressed their concerns following the allegations, with Radcliffe calling for countries to be banned from the Olympic Games if found guilty of continuous doping offences.
Coe believes the council will make the right decision following the investigations but admitted it was a ‘very, very difficult time for our sport.'
