'Need to protect clean athletes'

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe has insisted that athletics had been “at the vanguard” in the fight against doping and assured the world body would do everything to protect the clean athletes. 

While Coe reiterated his commitment of taking hard measures to curb the menace of doping, he also pointed out that “reality and perception often get badly tangled” in the sport.

“Usain Bolt is the most tested athlete, male or female, in any sport on the planet. We must give confidence to clean athletes that we are always going to be in their corner. The reason that you have testing systems is actually to protect the clean athletes. It’s not just simply to remove those who cheat,” Coe told reporters after meeting with the South Asian athletics officials here on Monday.

He also attended the Athletics Federation of India’s executive committee meeting. “I broke records myself and the assumption was that ‘he was not necessarily doing it on natural ability’ but of course I was.”

The two-time Olympic 1,500 metres champion mentioned that IAAF had tested 19,000 athletes since 2003-04, forcing many other sports to look up to it. “We have done more testing than any other sport. We have created blood passports, has arbitration panel, testing facilities, accredited labs; many, many sports have looked up to track and field in being exemplary in that area.

“I would rather have the embarrassment of a positive test than knowing we weren’t doing enough in our testing procedures to weed out those who choose to cheat. Now, with that comes the reputational damage. But I think it is better we deal with notoriety than sit and do nothing at all,” he said.

Coe said as the IAAF president he wanted to visit India first. “I had said that with an emotional appeal as many of you know that my grandfather was an Indian and my mother was born in Delhi and lived in India till she was 10. It was in large part in her memory I wanted to make a visit to the country,” said Coe, who is accompanied by his wife.

The 59-year-old’s two-day visit includes meeting with the Sports secretary and Director General of Sports Authority of India on Tuesday followed by a dinner hosted by the AFI.

He said his discussion with the Indian officials included the importance of creating competition structures in India. 

“I know that the Indian Athletics League is a very innovative thought and this is something that I think can make a big difference. We talked about unlocking and working with local and national sponsors,” he said.

Coe revealed he had referred the case of Indian athlete Dutee Chand to the medical commission. Chand had challenged the IAAF rules on hyperandrogenism and won the right to compete after Court of Arbitration for Sport gave the verdict in her favour. The CAS has given the IAAF a maximum period of two years to provide scientific evidence that there’s a link between enhanced performance and testosterone in hyperandrogenic athletes.

“I have already started discussions with our medical commission, this is a complicated sort of challenge,” he said.

Over the years, Usain Bolt has become synonymous with athletics around the world but Coe assured that athletics would survive even after the six-time Olympic champion hangs up his boots, expectedly after the 2017 World Championships. “Not since Muhammad Ali do I think any competitor in any sport has captured the imagination in the way Usain Bolt has. We’ve been very fortunate,” said Coe. “But our sport will not come to an end when Usain Bolt retires.”