Fredericks steps aside from IAAF work, to skip council meet

Athletics

Frank Fredericks has stepped aside from all his duties at the IAAF and "indicated" he won't attend its council meeting in London next month while he's the subject of an ethics investigation, world athletics head Sebastian Coe said yesterday.

Coe noted Fredericks had not resigned as a member of the IAAF's ruling council "but stepped aside to let all bodies investigate the matter."

Fredericks, who is also a voting International Olympic Committee member, is being investigated by the IOC ethics panel over a payment of nearly $300,000 he received from a now-banned athletics official around the time Rio de Janeiro was awarded the right to host the 2016 Olympics.

Speaking in Kampala, Uganda, where the cross-country world championships will take place on Sunday, Coe said Fredericks had not traveled to Uganda, and would stay away from other IAAF events while he's investigated.

"I have spoken to him (Fredericks) regularly since this issue came out and he decided to step away from all this as he needs time to sort all this," Coe said.

League 1

Yesterday

Fredericks, a former sprinter from Namibia, denied any wrongdoing after the 2009 payment was revealed by French newspaper Le Monde this month. Le Monde alleged the payment came from a Brazilian businessman and was channeled through a sports marketing company created by Papa Massata Diack, the son of former IAAF president Lamine Diack.

Papa Massata Diack, a former IAAF marketing consultant, has been banned for life by the IAAF and is being sought for questioning by French authorities. His father is facing corruption charges in France.

Fredericks said he had a contract with the sports marketing company and the timing of the payment was coincidental.

He reported details of the case to ethics commissions at the IOC and IAAF and had already stepped aside from all his duties at the IOC, which included leading the group evaluating the cities bidding to host the 2024 Olympics. He also previously withdrew from the IAAF taskforce looking at doping in Russia.

The 49-year-old Fredericks won four Olympic silver medals in the 1990s.