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IAAF reaffirms call for four-year doping ban

Posted March 26th, 2007 at 5:23 PM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Drugs In Sports

The IAAF will push for a four-year ban for doping when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) again takes up the measure next fall, the world governing body announced today.

By a unanimous vote, the IAAF Council, meeting for the second day here said it will make the proposal when the WADA code is revised in Madrid in November.

“We know that we will be almost alone on this matter,” said IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss. “But we are convinced about this. And we trust our convictions.”

The ultimate decision to extend the ban lies in the hands of the global agency which oversees doping sanctions for many of the world’s sports.

Should WADA choose not to extend the ban, the IAAF could choose an option similar to the one announced earlier this month by European Athletics, the governing body for the sport in Europe, which prohibits athletes returning to competition from a two-year ban to compete in any of its sanctioned continental championships for an additional two years.

The measure passed by the European association was not a sanction per se, but an added qualification requirement for competition. “The EA were clever,” Weiss said.

The Council also adopted a resolution that prohibits any member of the “Athletics Family” –including, but not limited to officials, athletes, athlete representatives, managers, coaches, meeting organizers and trainers– from being directly or indirectly involved in sport betting or related operations. While not specifically identified, the decision was apparently prompted by AthleticsBet.com, an online betting operation launched in January by Robert Wagner, an athlete manager from Austria.

The three-day meeting concludes on Tuesday with the announcement of the host cities for the 2011 and 2013 World Championships in Athletics. The three candidates for 2011 are Brisbane, Australia, Daegu, South Korea, and Moscow. The two non-winning bids for 2011 will join Barcelona in the hunt for 2013.