IAAF launches stern defense of anti-doping record amid scandal

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The head of world athletics launched a vigorous defense of the IAAF’s anti-doping record on Monday, as global sporting bodies called for a thorough probe of the latest doping allegations to plunge track and field into crisis.

IAAF president Lamine Diack said in response to reports of suspected widespread blood doping that any suggestion his organization had been negligent was “laughable.”

“There are allegations made, no evidence. We want to look into them seriously because to say that in athletics between 2001 and 2012 we did not do a serious job with tests is laughable,” said Diack.

Britain’s Sunday Times and Germany’s ARD/ WDR broadcaster reported on Sunday they had obtained secret data from the IAAF, supplied by a whistleblower.

The reports, only weeks before track and field’s showpiece event, claim endurance runners suspected of doping had been winning a third of the medals at Olympic Games and world championships in that period.

The reports did not say that any athletes had failed doping tests, only that the tests had been abnormal, which can sometimes be a sign of cheating.

There was no clear evidence to explain the Sunday Times and ARD/WDR reports but the allegations are the latest setback to tarnish the multi-billion dollar world of sport after the scandal at soccer’s global governing body, FIFA.

Athletics are a central part of the Olympics, the only sporting event that rivals soccer’s World Cup in scale and which collects billions of dollars from sponsors like Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Visa and McDonald’s.

Medals won could be affected if any cases of doping were subsequently unearthed using newer testing techniques that did not exist at the time.

The IAAF, yet to offer a detailed response to the contents of the reports, noted they were based on confidential information obtained without permission.

In one report, Australian doping expert Robin Parisotto and another scientist, Michael Ashendon, concluded that more than 800 athletes had recorded one or more “abnormal” results, defined as a result that had less than one chance in 100 of being natural.

Such athletes accounted for 146 medals at top events, including 55 golds, the Sunday Times said.

Russia accounted for 415 abnormal tests, followed distantly by Ukraine, Morocco, Spain, Kenya, Turkey and others.

The IAAF’s world athletics championships kick off in Beijing on August 22.