IAAF investigation findings to have wow factor, says Dick Pound

Dick Pound helping to probe doping allegations in the sport

Dick Pound has promised there will be a "wow factor" to the findings of the investigation he is leading into the conduct of the IAAF.

Former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Pound is chairing its independent commission looking at allegations of doping in athletics.

WADA suspended the accreditation of Russia's drug-testing laboratory in Moscow this month, and the country is facing a ban from the Rio 2016 Olympics as pressure mounts over the biggest doping scandal for a generation.

The IAAF ethics commission has brought disciplinary charges against four men, including the son of former president Lamine Diack and the former head of its anti-doping department, amid the corruption crisis engulfing international athletics.

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French police have also revealed Diack, succeeded as head of athletics' world governing body the IAAF by Lord Coe at the end of August, is being investigated over an alleged payment of more than 1m Euros to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes.

Pound said of the independent commission's unpublished dossier of evidence: "When we release this information to the world, there will be a wow factor.

"I think people will say how on earth could this happen? It's a complete betrayal of what the people in charge of the sport should be doing."

Speaking to The Independent, Canadian Pound said of doping in world sport: "I don't think we'll ever hit this for six.

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"There's going to be a series of small and steady victories. I think one of our small victories is making people aware that there is a lot more cheating going on in sport than most people ever thought."

He said the release of the commission's report on the IAAF will be released at a time to ensure maximum impact.

"It would be nice to have it done in 2015," Pound said. "But it looks more likely to be January.

"One fear is that if we issue it on the Friday before Christmas for example no one will notice it and we want to have the maximum impact and deterrent."