media_artricles :: 2016

Bolt: IAAF failed their athletes

Usain Bolt said he felt shocked and let down by the scandal-hit IAAF, but the Jamaican sprinter was against resetting athletics world records as the sport attempts to move on from a doping crisis.

The second instalment of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report slammed the International Association of Athletics Federations, saying the IAAF Council “could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics”.

The first part of the report by independent investigator Dick Pound, a former head of WADA, in November led to athletics superpower Russia being banned from competition. Bolt, a six-time Olympic champion, said the IAAF had failed their athletes.

“When I heard it was quite shocking for me to hear that because as far as I was concerned I think they were doing a good job to clean up the sport,” Bolt said.

“So for me to hear something like this was quite shocking and you feel let down as an athlete to be wanting to actually help clean up the sport, and then something like this to come up about the body.”

Former president Lamine Diack stepped down last November after 16 years in charge of the IAAF and was replaced by Britain’s Lord Sebastian Coe. Diack is already under formal investigation in France on suspicion of corruption and money laundering linked to the concealment of positive drug tests in concert with Russian officials and the blackmailing of the athletes to allow them to continue to compete.

The reports noted that Diack “sanctioned and appeared to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the illegitimate governance structure he put in place”.

UK Athletics (UKA) released ‘A Manifesto for Clean Athletics’, calling for world records to be wiped clean and drug cheats to be banned for at least eight years in radical proposals aimed at heralding in a new era for the sport.

Bolt, who set the 100m and 200m world records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds in 2009 and shared in the 4x100m mark of 36.84secs in 2012, is against the proposal.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s really pointless,” the 29-year-old added.

“What’s done is done, you have to just move forward and try to make the upcoming championships and Olympics and the next [world] records as best as we can and just look forward to the future.”

Become a subscriber to the Trinidad Express Newspapers for access to all our articles via our e-paper.

Click here to subscribe | Log- In

Top