Athletics governing body cans Monaco gala

Coe said: “Given the cloud that hangs over our association this is clearly not the time for the global athletics family to be gathering in celebration of our sport”.

French police have already revealed Lamine Diack, who was succeeded as head of the IAAF by Coe at the end of August, is being investigated over an alleged payment of more than one million euros to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes. “And these latest developments, if they are true…I don’t think anything much worse could happen to the sport than for the former president to have colluded with the Russian Federation over doping tests”, former Olympic and world decathlon champion Thompson told Talksport Radio.

It said it was fully cooperating with the probe.

It has filed disciplinary charges against him, Dolle, former Russian athletics federation head Valentin Balakhnichev and Alexei Melnikov, former head coach for Russia’s long-distance runners and walkers.

Coe, who was a vice-president to Diack, volunteered to talk to police when they visited the body’s Monaco offices on Tuesday.

On Monday, November 9, an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency will publish an account of its investigation into the suspicion Russian athletes had used doping.

According to WADA’s findings, at least one of Diack’s sons approached Turkish runner Asli Cakir Alptekin a few months after she won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 2012 London Olympics and suggested she could pay to quash a doping positive based on her blood readings. Diack remains listed as the foundation’s president.

Diack’s legal adviser at the IAAF, Habib Cisse, and Gabriel Dolle, a doctor who managed the IAAF’s anti-doping program at the IAAF, were also detained and charged with corruption. But the inquiry could be spread to other cases involving other nationalities, the source added.

“Emanating from separate ongoing investigations by WADA’s independent commission and the IAAF’s own independent ethics commission into allegations surrounding its anti-doping rules and regulations, a French police investigation has now commenced”, said an IAAF statement.

Reuters has not been able to reach Diack’s lawyer for comment.

Five Russian athletes have been banned for drugs offences ahead of the publication of a major investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) into doping in the country.

Although the science behind the claims was complicated and far from conclusive evidence of further widespread doping, Coe immediately drew comparisons with cycling during its worst years when he said: “It’s a declaration of war on my sport”. “But they did not come here to question Seb Coe”.