Coe back under spotlight over knowledge of corruption case
IAAF President Sebastian Coe is back under scrutiny regarding the extent of his knowledge of a corruption scandal in track and field following fresh evidence released by British legislators.
Coe told a British parliamentary committee in December 2015 that he was not aware of specific allegations of corruption in relation to a Russian doping case that broke in December 2014, when he was serving as vice president of the sport's governing body.
However, an email provided to the committee by Coe and published on Tuesday refers to him telling Michael Beloff, chairman of the IAAF Ethics Commission, in August 2014 that he had "been made aware of the allegations" after receiving copied documentation.
In a letter to the chairman of the parliamentary committee, also published Tuesday, Coe said there was "no discrepancy" in his accounts and that there are "no grounds for suggesting that I misled the committee in any way in December 2015."
Coe was elected as IAAF president in August 2015.
Coe was asked this month to appear for a second time before legislators after they heard evidence from Dave Bedford, the former race director of the London Marathon, who said he called and emailed Coe in August 2014 to warn him about the scandal.
Coe says in the letter published yesterday that "I believe the committee now has all of the information it needs from me to prepare its report."
The case centers around allegations that senior IAAF officials were extorting money from Russian athletes to bury positive doping tests.