World records prior to 2005 may be voided

CASLAV, Czech Republic — In 1983, at age 32, when most track athletes are beyond their fastest times, Jarmila Kratochvilova ran 800 meters in 1 minute, 53.28 seconds. The result has become track and field’s longest-standing outdoor world record.

And perhaps its most suspect. Kratochvilova, now 66, has been retired from competition for three decades, but her career may be shaken retroactively as officials attempt to restore credibility to a sport hit by repeated doping scandals.

European Athletics in May proposed having the sport’s global governing body void all world records set before 2005. That year, storage of blood and urine samples began for more sophisticated drug screenings. Forty-five outdoor records are at stake, including Florence Griffith Joyner’s women’s records in the 100 and 200 set in 1988.

The proposal is being refined before being decided upon by track’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations.

Sebastian Coe of Britain, the IAAF president, has called it a “step in the right direction,” saying, “We have a good chance of winning back credibility in this area.”

But the proposal has sparked outrage among the record holders who feel they are being judged guilty of doping by association. There is no proof that every record set before 2005 was aided by doping and no guarantee that every record achieved since then was unassisted by banned substances, they say.

Revoking records would be “complete nonsense,” Kratochvilova said this month through an interpreter. “I have never taken banned substances,” she said.

It seems inevitable that any attempt to delete records en masse will end up before a judge or an arbitrator.

Mike Powell of the United States has threatened legal action if forced to abdicate his 1991 world record in the long jump. Paula Radcliffe of Britain, who in 2003 set the women’s marathon record, said in a statement that it was “cowardly” to sweep aside all records “instead of having the guts to take the legal plunge and wipe any record that would be found in a court of law to have been illegally assisted.”