Marathon News - IAAF Reiterates Support for Four-Year Doping Ban, Coe, Bubka Elected VPs

Aug-23-2007

IAAF Reiterates Support for Four-Year Doping Ban, Coe, Bubka Elected VPs
by Bob Ramsak
(c) Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track & field's international governing body, reiterated its support for a four-year penalty for first time serious doping infractions.

At the second day of the 46th IAAF Congress, the sport's ruling body endorsed a resolution first passed at its last Congress two years ago in Helsinki when member federations unanimously called for a move to increast penalties for doping offenses, in the case of serious infractions, from the current two year ban to four years.

"We remain convinced that strong penalties are an important cornerstone of an effective anti-doping campaign in general, and in athletics in particular," the IAAF said in a statement released on Thursday.

The World Anti-Doping Code is currently under review, with revisions expected to be adopted at the World Conference on Anti-Doping in Madrid in November.

"The IAAF Council is therefore mandated by and on behalf of all Member Federations," the statement continued, "to pursue every reasonable means to ensure that the wishes of the athletics community are respected and that a regime of 4-year penalties for first serious doping infractions is adopted both within the World Anti-Doping Code and as the policy and practice of the IAAF."

In other Congress news, former athletics superstars Sergey Bubka and Sebastian Coe were elected IAAF Vice Presidents on Wednesday, along with Bob Hersh of the U.S. and Dahlan Al-Hamad of Qatar. Coe, a former Olympic champion and world record holder in the middle distances, currently heads the London 2012 Olympic Organizing Committee. Amadeo Francis of Puerto Rico and Helmut Digel of Germany were unseated in the election. Francis served as a Vice President since 1999 and Digel since 2001. Francis, along with former Olympic great Irena Szewinska of Poland, also lost their seats on the IAAF Council.

IAAF President Lamine Diack was unopposed for a third term and will step down when his term expires in 2011.