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Coe targets doping after winning IAAF presidency
Posted On Aug 19 2015
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“I have a team dedicated to make sure that works”.
At the IAAF Congress in Beijing, attended by 211 of the world body’s delegates, the Singapore Athletics chief lost to the president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, Jose Maria Odriozola. I will continue to serve athletics with passion.
The British former Olympic middle-distance champion has to face down a number of challenges including the issue of doping which is looming over the sport at present. But few who voted at the IAAF Congress in Beijing can have any doubt as to whether they have found a man utterly committed to athletics and with a true determination to rebuild it.
But the item at the top of his to-do list, is restoring credibility and trust in the sport, which he said will include establishing an independent anti-doping agency to curb any cheating. “That means we have the highest leadership of IAAF as our allies”. “My life has always been fairly complicated and very busy”, said Coe, a twice-married father-of-four who also undertook an exhaustive campaign to help London win the rights for the Olympics. “That is something… I will want to discuss with priority”.
Kosovo and South Sudan received 187 and 192 votes, respectively.
There were 211 eligible member federations voting in the election, with Afghanistan and Iran absent and Gabon under suspension. Coe was elected with 115 votes to Bubka’s 92.
– Jose Maria Odriozola of Spain was elected as treasurer. “I’m asking to share power, and to spread power”, he said. I have fought to bring it to my country, I fought to be as good as I could, I fought to take it to young people. The sport, of course, will shame itself in any case if nothing is done, but navigating athletics through this perilous period and on to a better future is a job so precarious as to be close to impossible.
“This has been a very, very long, hard tough campaign”, he said, “But it has given sport chance to pause for breath, to review itself, renew itself, think about what the next 30 or 40 years look like”.
