ATHLETICS-WORLD/IAAF DIACK IAAF in crisis but '99 pct' of athletes clean - Diack

Record ID: 143158

  • Title: ATHLETICS-WORLD/IAAF DIACK IAAF in crisis but '99 pct' of athletes clean - Diack
  • Date: 20th August 2015
  • Summary: BEJING, CHINA (AUGUST 20, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** OUTGOING INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ATHLETICS FEDERATIONS (IAAF) PRESIDENT, LAMINE DIACK SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE PEOPLE STANDING AND SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (French) OUTGOING IAAF PRESIDENT, LAMINE DIACK, SAYING: "Trust us. We cannot afford people to doubt our performances, if so we will be f
  • Embargoed: 4th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6M9UWF2M7NW2AOU7SXBGJQQGF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Outgoing athletics chief Lamine Diack admits his sport is in crisis because of the doping allegations levelled at it over the last month but still believes "99 percent" of athletes are clean.
    The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has endured three torrid weeks of embarrassing leaks and accusations that it has neglected its duty to root out drug cheats.
    Diack's 16 years as IAAF president will come to an end when he is replaced by president-elect Sebastian Coe at the end of the Aug. 22-30 world championships but the Senegalese has no intention of going meekly into retirement.
    "Trust us. We cannot afford people to doubt our performances, if so we will be finished," he said at the closing news conference of the 50th IAAF Congress on Thursday (August 20) in Beijing. "If there are questions about what we do we are finished but we are convinced that 99 percent of our athletes are clean."
    The accusations, based on leaked test data obtained by two media organisations, are that the IAAF have allowed athletes to continue to compete despite submitting suspect blood samples.
    Diack repeated his assertion from the opening session of the Congress that athletics had been in the vanguard of fighting doping and had nothing to learn from any other sport.
    "Unfortunately for you (the media) if I do 3,000 (tests) and I have 200 positive cases and 2,800 negative it is not newsworthy. The news is the 200 positive (cases). This might continue to be trumped but that but athletics has no lessons be taught on this subject," said the 82 year-old from Senegal.
    Diack said he was confident that his successor Coe, who has already announced that he will set up an independent anti-doping agency for athletics, would be equal to the task of defending the sport against its critics.
    The Senegalese also defended his record during his time as IAAF president.
    "We are continuing to do our job in the same way that we have always dome. It is not because there is a lot around this issue (of doping) that we are going to panic. We will carry on in the same way because we have nothing to learn," he said.
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