The chairman of UK Athletics has called on the International Association of Athletics Federations to resolve its investigation into alleged systematic drug abuse by Russian athletes swiftly and decisively.
Ed Warner said that the fact that the allegations, some of which have been known to the IAAF for some time, had become public would act as a useful stimulus in encouraging a swift resolution.
“We don’t need this in a year’s time, we need this in a matter of weeks time. We don’t want to go into the 2015 athletics season with suspicion hanging over Russian athletes,” he said. “We can’t be going into a European indoor championships in Prague in March with people looking at what they are watching and wondering if they can believe it.”
A German television documentary has alleged Russian officials accepted payment from athletes to supply banned substances. It also claimed that the IAAF was complicit in covering up the abuse. On Thursday Russia’s Athletics Federation president, Valentin Balakhnichev described the allegations as “a pack of lies”.
Warner said: “The allegations that have been aired are clearly extremely serious and it’s vital the IAAF doesn’t pay lip service to any investigation and is seen to thoroughly scrutinise what has or has not gone on here swiftly and openly.
“Any conclusion it reaches must be published for all to see and any action that is taken must be sufficiently punitive to make sure there is not only punishment but also deterrent. The risk is that this takes too long and is conducted too discretely and there is no sense that the IAAF is taking this seriously enough. If that is the case the integrity of the sport is called into question.”
Warner conceded that it was a “delicate situation” for the IAAF given Russia’s status as a “powerhouse of global athletics”. But he said that made it even more important that the investigation, understood to be being led by IAAF ethics committee chair Michael Beloff QC, gave the public confidence in the sport.
“I am hoping the IAAF is decisive, swift and public in the way it handles it. History suggests these things can be kicked into the long grass. If there is wrongdoing here, that can’t be allowed to happen,” he said. “If there is wrongdoing here, clean athletes need to have confidence that they are operating on a level playing field.”
Meanwhile, IOC president Thomas Bach says the Olympic body is prepared to take action against any Russian athletes or officials involved in doping if accusations of systematic cheating and corruption are proven to be true.
Bach met with World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie on Thursday to discuss the allegations. Bach said the International Olympic Committee contacted the ethics commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which is investigating the allegations.
Bach said, if the IAAF inquiry determines that Russian athletes or officials involved in the Olympics were guilty of doping violations, “the IOC will act.”
