Paula Radcliffe opposes plan to wipe athletics records
Thursday 14 January 2016 14:37, UK
Marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe is opposed to the UK Athletics proposal of wiping the history books in order to make a clean start.
UK Athletics' 'Manifesto for Clean Athletics' was released on Monday and one of the governing body's 14 proposals is to reset world records as many were set when doping was rife in the sport.
But Radcliffe, whose 2 hours 15 minutes 25 seconds marathon mark was set in 2003, believes such a move would be unfair on athletes who competed without doping.
"Without doubt you are going to punish innocent athletes, so why do it again when they have already had to compete against cheats during their career?" she told The Guardian.
"I feel that innocent athletes have suffered enough at the hands of drugs cheats."
Radcliffe is one of three British record holders across indoor and outdoor competition, along with Jonathan Edwards and Colin Jackson.
"I'll never agree with the records being wiped because I know 100 per cent that at least one of those records was achieved clean and that means more were too," she added.
Instead, Radcliffe feels a better solution is for those found guilty of doping violations to lose all of their records.
"If sufficient evidence comes to light about doping at any point, then all of an athlete's marks should retrospectively get wiped for their entire career," she said.
"You are not saying they were cheating at that point, but the decision to dope means you forego and sacrifice everything you achieved before that. I think that is a strong deterrent."
