Athletics moves one step closer to the abyss on shameful day for sport

In or out, it barely matters any more. The race is run. Few care, fewer still believe. All achievements appear tainted, the greatest accomplishments are met with a shrug or occur in relative anonymity.

Last Sunday, Eliud Kipchoge took 78 seconds off the men’s marathon record in Berlin. You had to be there. no, really, you did because despite there being a chance this would happen — a new world record is always possible in Berlin — no television network in this country, terrestrial or satellite, broadcast the race. Those wishing to follow Kipchoge’s epic journey had to rely on a makeshift feed from Kenya.

Meanwhile, as the fury around the London Stadium continues, it is now considered almost laughable that this country thought it needed a 60,000- capacity arena for a sport as empty as athletics.

Thank russia, in part, for that; and as of yesterday thank WADA, too. The World Anti- Doping Agency is now officially engaged in the process of waving through arguably the most brazen and well organised conspiracy of drug cheats sport has ever known. An entire nation of them, across every discipline, state-sponsored and unrepentant. Indeed, having set conditions for russia’s return, WADA turned out to have a reserve set of different, watereddown conditions if the originals didn’t meet russia’s approval.

Which they couldn’t because russia has never admitted it had a doping problem. only that ‘ failings’ occurred. Like the failings of the wider world of sport when it was innocently presumed the authorities were remotely interested in meaningful sanctions for drug cheats.

For WADA are not alone. They follow a long line of lickspittles from IoC president Thomas Bach to Gianni Infantino of FIFA, who have creeped and crawled around russia in the interim, desperate to return them to the front line of competition. The redundant, devalued, untenable WADA have merely sensed the change that is demanded by those in the presidential motorcade, always uncomfortable with russia in exile even when all evidence suggests hundreds, maybe thousands, of cheats remain unpunished.

This is a shameful, disgraceful day for sport, one that calls into question the future of WADA in its present form and the integrity of many organisations and events that are cornerstones of the olympic movement.

When an athlete as great as Kipchoge is doubted — Kenya do not have an unblemished record and given the vastness of his supremacy, scepticism is an obvious by-product — and reduced to the margins, what prospects are there for olympic sports?

As the fury of athletes and national anti- doping agencies grows, as the contempt of the public mounts, how does the regulatory body recover when even some of its own executives have issued statements condemning yesterday’s decision?

The answer is, it does not. WADA has no credibility after this, but they are not the only losers. Something far bigger is being surrendered here. Kipchoge’s unseen steps count down towards a sadly inevitable end.