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by Our Sports Desk
ATHLETICS may be awash with doping allegations but the outgoing head of the sport’s governing body Lamine Diack insisted yesterday that it is “99 per cent” clean.
The biennial World Championships get under way tomorrow in Beijing, where the build-up is being dominated by a spate of reports about drug use.
It is the biggest challenge that faces Sebastian Coe as prepares to take over as International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president from long-serving Diack at the end of the event.
The Senegalese is looking forward to the focus turning to the sport itself and downplayed the depth of problems facing the sport.
“We do 3,000 tests a year,” Diack said in Beijing. “I have 200 tests positive and 2,800 that are negative. You focus on the bad news, that is the 200 positive tests.
“We have no lessons to be taught by any other sport. We do what we have to do and we were doing it long before the others.
“We will continue to do our job like we’ve always done. It’s not because there is lots of fuss around this now, we will continue to do the job in the field as we’ve always done it.
“The next president has a very clear policy of zero tolerance.
“We can’t afford to have our performances being in doubt. If there is any doubt, that’s the end of it. But we are convinced 99 per cent of our athletes are clean.”
That number would appear to fly in the face of recent allegations, which Coe addressed after his election as IAAF president on Wednesday.
“He is big enough and strong enough to face up to these allegations and these problems and to show that these wrong accusations are wrong accusations,” Diack said.
“He loves this sport. He will do a great job, he knows much more about sport than I do myself being an Olympic champion and world record holder.”
Meanwhile, Sergey Bubka, beaten to the IAAF presidency by Coe, will be leaving Beijing early ahead of the World Championships for family reasons.
A short statement from the IAAF read: “Vice-president Sergey Bubka has informed the IAAF president that he will, very reluctantly, have to leave Beijing to attend to pressing family matters at home.
“The IAAF would like to send its best wishes to Sergey and his family at this time.”
