I cannot see how Coe can clean the sport up as the report seems to be saying that he, along with the others in the top echelon's of Athletics knew full well the depth of the corruption infesting the sport yet still supported Diack.
Frankly only a complete clean out will do, and that includes Coe.
Totally agree. Our media are hypocrites. They rightly ganged up against Sepp Blatter and now because it's a British guy on top of IAAF, they are saying he can clean it up.
Makes you think that they all have dirt on each other and are afraid of what will come out
The best you can say about Coe was that when he was taken on as Vice President he thought the job would just be a cushy skive, which allowed him to fly around the world first class, stay in five star hotels, gladhand his old mates and not involving any actual work, duties or responsibilities. Coe's the ultimate Quango king.
I may be wrong but I get the impression with Dick Pound et al that it's a case of better the devil you know as far as Coe is concerned.
There is a long way to go before trust can even start to be rebuilt. For me though Russia has to remain banned for Rio at least otherwise what was the point of the ban in the first place. And we also need investigations on other countries like Turkey, Kenya, Morocco Spain etc..
One post is probably not enough to state anyone's thoughts on the whole thing so I wrote a blog about it (though not everything as that would take forever!), it might differ somewhat what other people have written here but hopefully it can make good reading.
One post is probably not enough to state anyone's thoughts on the whole thing so I wrote a blog about it (though not everything as that would take forever!), it might differ somewhat what other people have written here but hopefully it can make good reading.
Good blog. I'm not an apologist for Coe by any means but there is definitely an element amongst the British Media in wanting to see his downfall. Perversely that may actually be a good reason for him to remain in his post for now - I doubt there would have been the level of scrutiny from the British media had say Sergey Bubka been in charge.
I read with interest your comments about attracting newer, younger fans but the reality is that until the trust is rebuilt then you can't really do any serious work on this. The fundamentals need to be fixed first of all.
One post is probably not enough to state anyone's thoughts on the whole thing so I wrote a blog about it (though not everything as that would take forever!), it might differ somewhat what other people have written here but hopefully it can make good reading.
I do think you're going out on a limb though by stating unequivocally that certain athletes are clean. Right now I wouldn't trust anyone 100% ( I was badly burned after defending Lance Armstrong for years).
As for Coe - the 80's were a golden period for British athletics. The Brits were winning medals, setting records all over the place, beating the Eastern European and Russian athletes who are now known dopers. I really think it would be naive to think all Brits were 100% clean.
Away from all the grim stuff, some good news for 2 of GBs seemingly perennially injured athletes. Robbie Grabarz jumped 2.29 yesterday his best jump since 2013 World Champs and an Olympic qualifier to boot. And Andy Pozzi ran 7.61 in the 60 hurdles too, a very promising start to the year from him
Backs Seb Coe. Says the revelations were a shock to him.. which is interesting because you'd think he would be one of the people who might hear things or be told things off the record.
I agree with him on the WR reset thing. It's a ridiculous idea because that won't stop cheating over night. If anything it may actually increase cheating because suddenly everyone on the track has a potential WR to acquire.
The way I see it people will always cheat. Fact of life. So you have two approaches. One, you allow it to happen and try to control it. Or two, you test the athletes as regular as you can with a very strict process and you have life time bans. You need to make it so cheating isn't worth the risk. Caught doping? That's it. All over. No second chance. Never again will you take part in athletics. Scary thing is even that may not be enough to put someone off who has already accepted they're not good enough to win medals naturally. But I think it's better than what they have now where a 100m final has a field with past dopers in it.
Oh also you talk to the dopers. Get the cheats in and get them to discuss WHY they cheated. Find out what their motivations were. Did they cheat because they felt everyone else was cheating? Did they cheat because of commercial pressure? Did they cheat because their coach forced them to? The culture needs to be understood.
Defending champion Eliud Kipchoge returns to face two-time champion Wilson Kipsang once again in a field that includes five entrants with sub-2:05 PBs. Other names to look out for are world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie and all-time distance legend Kenenisa Bekele.
No fewer than thirteen Brits have been added to the startlist - again, a top 2 finish (and a 2:14:00 clocking or better since 1 January 2015) will earn automatic qualification for Rio. At the moment, only Scott Overall and Callum Hawkins currently have the standard.
Looking elsewhere, Andy Pozzi begins his season on the boards with a 7.61 WL in the 60mH. That's his best opener, but can he avoid another long lay-off from injury this season?
Gemma Steel has decided to target the 10,000m in Rio instead of the marathon. She also intends to do the ECh half-marathon - that's a new disclipline for the event, BTW (marathon not included in Olympic-year ECh as it is clearly unfeasible).
Mo has made himself available for Cardiff 2016 selection. He had also considered doing a half-marathon in Lisbon or New York - both of which he's done before, so it wasn't a sure thing he'd opt for another crack at a global title on home soil this year.
That said, winning a world half-marathon title will be at least as (if not more) difficult than retaining either of his Olympic titles - not least because Geoffrey Kamworor is the reigning champion, the world cross-country champion, runner-up in last year's New York Marathon and Mo's fiercest rival in Beijing over 10,000m.
Although it is not part of the World Marathon Majors series, the Dubai Marathon has a reputation for attracting fields of similar depth; the driving factor is the lavish prize fund on offer (obviously) and the winners get $200,000 each. Nice work if you can get it!
In today's edition, the spoils were claimed by Tesfaye Abera and Tirfi Tsegaye in 2:04:24 and 2:19:41 respectively (both WL/PB). At one point, it looked as though the men's WR was under threat, given that the halfway point was reached in 1:01:36 by a lead pack of 16!!
As far as the Olympic marathon is concerned, the Ethiopian selectors are hoping to avoid the scenario from last time in which they picked their three fastest men that season, only to see them all DNF in London 2012. At least Tiki Gelana delivered (and she broke the OR to boot), but she's struggled since that collision with Josh Cassidy a few years ago...
As far as the Olympic marathon is concerned, the Ethiopian selectors are hoping to avoid the scenario from last time in which they picked their three fastest men that season, only to see them all DNF in London 2012.
In other words, picking the very three guys in the country who had the least to gain and the most to lose by completing the Olympic Marathon.
Not just Mo who's planning a run in Cardiff. Adam Gemili is making his comeback from injury next weekend at the Welsh Champs. Will be interesting to see how he goes as in addition to the comeback it's the first time he has run indoors since 2012. James Dasaolu is competing in the 60m there too and Asha Philip will be running against talented young Welsh sprinter Hannah Brier.
Nike stepping up to sponsor the sport would look terrible right now. May be a case of beggars can't be choosers though.
Mind you i'm not buying for 1 minute that Adidas are all virtuous and have developed a conscience. They seemingly have no issues with corruption at FIFA but do at the IAAF
As ever with these Multi National companies it comes down to $$$ - they just see Football as more viable in making them money than athletics.
Athletics is actually my favourite sport, but I have been too depressed and disappointed to comment here since the doping scandal came to light. But surely this has the worst thing to happen so far? And not just because of the money. In Olympic year, one of the worlds major sports brands no longer want to be associated with the governing body of the most watched sport in the Olympics? I'm sitting here praying that there is more to the story, like Adidas suddenly discovering a £21 million black hole in it's balance sheet and trying to fill it by scapegoating the IAAF.........
Any protracted court case between Adidas and the IAAF will just heap more negative publicity on the IAAF as well.
Athletics is actually my favourite sport, but I have been too depressed and disappointed to comment here since the doping scandal came to light. But surely this has the worst thing to happen so far? And not just because of the money. In Olympic year, one of the worlds major sports brands no longer want to be associated with the governing body of the most watched sport in the Olympics? I'm sitting here praying that there is more to the story, like Adidas suddenly discovering a £21 million black hole in it's balance sheet and trying to fill it by scapegoating the IAAF.........
Any protracted court case between Adidas and the IAAF will just heap more negative publicity on the IAAF as well.
Sad times.
Interesting that you should fall out of lov with the sport "since the doping scandal broke"
Thing is we all knew it was going on well before the news came to light didn't we? I remember the 1970s and just loving athletics even though we all knew the East Germans and Soviet athletes were cheating. Was it niaevity? Or just acceptance that it went on.
That attitude has prevailed unfortunately. The sport should have come down hard then and it should have come don harder in the last 10 years on those under suspicion. We do have the technology but too much pandering to governments and diplomacy. Funny that they hit the Greek athletes hard just before 2004 Olympics. Then they stopped their crusade.
Interesting that you should fall out of lov with the sport "since the doping scandal broke"
Thing is we all knew it was going on well before the news came to light didn't we? I remember the 1970s and just loving athletics even though we all knew the East Germans and Soviet athletes were cheating. Was it niaevity? Or just acceptance that it went on.
That attitude has prevailed unfortunately. The sport should have come down hard then and it should have come don harder in the last 10 years on those under suspicion. We do have the technology but too much pandering to governments and diplomacy. Funny that they hit the Greek athletes hard just before 2004 Olympics. Then they stopped their crusade.
I didn't say that I had "fallen out of love with the sport". Just that I have been too depressed to post on the whole sorry mess. Tiger Rose is right about Adidas being somewhat hypocritical but football can survive its current scandal because it involves the administrators rather than the actual athletic participants. This involves both. And has far more victims in terms of the athletes cheated out of medals.
As for knowing it was going on, well colour me naive, but not on this scale. Back in London 2012 on this very forum I called out the female winner of the 1500 as a cheat (before she won) but I was completely and utterly taken in by Mariya Savinova for example, who was one of my favourite athletes because her improvement seemed consistent and she seemed like a pure-trained tough of the track.
I also didn't know that the East Germans, and Czechs were cheating wholesale back in the day until it came to light, but once it had it was clear that the Chinese, Greeks and some Turks were dubious and I could write off their victories in my mind because they were obvious frauds and everyone knew it.
But I find this corrupt shambles, after all the talk of improved technology and rigourous testing methods, to be quite painful. The trust has been shatterred. Even Coe is implicated. Where do you think the sport would be if Gatlin had beaten Bolt at the WC and then this escalating scandal broke? That's how much of a knife edge the sport is on right now. Of course I will continue to watch athletics but how many new fans will the sport attract? It's tough to enjoy a sport where you have to wait for five years of checks and balances before you can cheer for the winner....
Interviewed on the Today programme on R4 this morning, the president of the Oceanic AA, affiliated to the IAAF, spent a great deal of time disputing the amount of sponsorship money coming from Adidas. Sounded like he had been up all night poring over the records. Very defensive, and missing the point. The amount is not the important factor, it's the fact that Adidas wants to wash its hands of this shower.
Anyone who wants to buy a ticket for London 2017 (see press release) will be invited to register for a 'priority purchase window' by 31 March as long as they belong to one of the following groups:
* Athletes holding up-to-date registrations with their Home Country governing body
* Key Club Contacts
* ‘Star volunteers’ who are imperative to the running of athletics clubs
* The Sport’s database of licensed coaches and officials
* British Athletics Loyal Buyers who have attended multiple athletics events
* British Athletics Supporters Club
Invitations will be sent by UKA or the applicable home country governing bodies. Further details for the general public (timetable, pricing etc) will be released in April.
Here's a pick of notable indoor performances so far this season:
* Akela Jones (BAR) tops the women's pentathlon world rankings with a NR of 4643
* Reza Ghasemi (IRI) tops the men's 60m world rankings with a NR of 6.52. Can't remember the last time an Iranian produced a WL in a track event
* 20 year-old Yulimar Rojas (VEN) tops the women's triple jump world rankings with an AR of 14.69m
* In the men's pole vault, outdoor world champion Shawnacy Barber (CAN) recently became the latest member of the 6m club with another NR
* Kendra Harrison (USA) tops the women's 60mH world rankings with a PB of 7.83
UKA usually send substantial squads to the WICh, so it's a bit unusual to see fewer notable British performances than usual at this point in the season, Muir and Pozzi aside. The loss of the Glasgow International Match is a factor.
Comments
perhaps one day we will know the truth about the UK athletes who were doping that the IAAF covered up.
the athletes who are supporting coe to stay, are in my book tainted
Totally agree. Our media are hypocrites. They rightly ganged up against Sepp Blatter and now because it's a British guy on top of IAAF, they are saying he can clean it up.
The best you can say about Coe was that when he was taken on as Vice President he thought the job would just be a cushy skive, which allowed him to fly around the world first class, stay in five star hotels, gladhand his old mates and not involving any actual work, duties or responsibilities. Coe's the ultimate Quango king.
There is a long way to go before trust can even start to be rebuilt. For me though Russia has to remain banned for Rio at least otherwise what was the point of the ban in the first place. And we also need investigations on other countries like Turkey, Kenya, Morocco Spain etc..
https://athleticsappetizer.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/my-thoughts-on-the-iaafrussia-drug-stories/
Enjoy!
Good blog. I'm not an apologist for Coe by any means but there is definitely an element amongst the British Media in wanting to see his downfall. Perversely that may actually be a good reason for him to remain in his post for now - I doubt there would have been the level of scrutiny from the British media had say Sergey Bubka been in charge.
I read with interest your comments about attracting newer, younger fans but the reality is that until the trust is rebuilt then you can't really do any serious work on this. The fundamentals need to be fixed first of all.
http://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/rio-2016-timetable-athletics-change
That's very well written.
I do think you're going out on a limb though by stating unequivocally that certain athletes are clean. Right now I wouldn't trust anyone 100% ( I was badly burned after defending Lance Armstrong for years).
As for Coe - the 80's were a golden period for British athletics. The Brits were winning medals, setting records all over the place, beating the Eastern European and Russian athletes who are now known dopers. I really think it would be naive to think all Brits were 100% clean.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wcydp
Backs Seb Coe. Says the revelations were a shock to him.. which is interesting because you'd think he would be one of the people who might hear things or be told things off the record.
I agree with him on the WR reset thing. It's a ridiculous idea because that won't stop cheating over night. If anything it may actually increase cheating because suddenly everyone on the track has a potential WR to acquire.
The way I see it people will always cheat. Fact of life. So you have two approaches. One, you allow it to happen and try to control it. Or two, you test the athletes as regular as you can with a very strict process and you have life time bans. You need to make it so cheating isn't worth the risk. Caught doping? That's it. All over. No second chance. Never again will you take part in athletics. Scary thing is even that may not be enough to put someone off who has already accepted they're not good enough to win medals naturally. But I think it's better than what they have now where a 100m final has a field with past dopers in it.
Oh also you talk to the dopers. Get the cheats in and get them to discuss WHY they cheated. Find out what their motivations were. Did they cheat because they felt everyone else was cheating? Did they cheat because of commercial pressure? Did they cheat because their coach forced them to? The culture needs to be understood.
Defending champion Eliud Kipchoge returns to face two-time champion Wilson Kipsang once again in a field that includes five entrants with sub-2:05 PBs. Other names to look out for are world champion Ghirmay Ghebreslassie and all-time distance legend Kenenisa Bekele.
No fewer than thirteen Brits have been added to the startlist - again, a top 2 finish (and a 2:14:00 clocking or better since 1 January 2015) will earn automatic qualification for Rio. At the moment, only Scott Overall and Callum Hawkins currently have the standard.
Looking elsewhere, Andy Pozzi begins his season on the boards with a 7.61 WL in the 60mH. That's his best opener, but can he avoid another long lay-off from injury this season?
Gemma Steel has decided to target the 10,000m in Rio instead of the marathon. She also intends to do the ECh half-marathon - that's a new disclipline for the event, BTW (marathon not included in Olympic-year ECh as it is clearly unfeasible).
That said, winning a world half-marathon title will be at least as (if not more) difficult than retaining either of his Olympic titles - not least because Geoffrey Kamworor is the reigning champion, the world cross-country champion, runner-up in last year's New York Marathon and Mo's fiercest rival in Beijing over 10,000m.
In today's edition, the spoils were claimed by Tesfaye Abera and Tirfi Tsegaye in 2:04:24 and 2:19:41 respectively (both WL/PB). At one point, it looked as though the men's WR was under threat, given that the halfway point was reached in 1:01:36 by a lead pack of 16!!
As far as the Olympic marathon is concerned, the Ethiopian selectors are hoping to avoid the scenario from last time in which they picked their three fastest men that season, only to see them all DNF in London 2012. At least Tiki Gelana delivered (and she broke the OR to boot), but she's struggled since that collision with Josh Cassidy a few years ago...
In other words, picking the very three guys in the country who had the least to gain and the most to lose by completing the Olympic Marathon.
http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featured/adam-gemili-determined-to-make-up-for-lost-time-38170/
Mind you i'm not buying for 1 minute that Adidas are all virtuous and have developed a conscience. They seemingly have no issues with corruption at FIFA but do at the IAAF
As ever with these Multi National companies it comes down to $$$ - they just see Football as more viable in making them money than athletics.
Athletics is actually my favourite sport, but I have been too depressed and disappointed to comment here since the doping scandal came to light. But surely this has the worst thing to happen so far? And not just because of the money. In Olympic year, one of the worlds major sports brands no longer want to be associated with the governing body of the most watched sport in the Olympics? I'm sitting here praying that there is more to the story, like Adidas suddenly discovering a £21 million black hole in it's balance sheet and trying to fill it by scapegoating the IAAF.........
Any protracted court case between Adidas and the IAAF will just heap more negative publicity on the IAAF as well.
Sad times.
Interesting that you should fall out of lov with the sport "since the doping scandal broke"
Thing is we all knew it was going on well before the news came to light didn't we? I remember the 1970s and just loving athletics even though we all knew the East Germans and Soviet athletes were cheating. Was it niaevity? Or just acceptance that it went on.
That attitude has prevailed unfortunately. The sport should have come down hard then and it should have come don harder in the last 10 years on those under suspicion. We do have the technology but too much pandering to governments and diplomacy. Funny that they hit the Greek athletes hard just before 2004 Olympics. Then they stopped their crusade.
I didn't say that I had "fallen out of love with the sport". Just that I have been too depressed to post on the whole sorry mess. Tiger Rose is right about Adidas being somewhat hypocritical but football can survive its current scandal because it involves the administrators rather than the actual athletic participants. This involves both. And has far more victims in terms of the athletes cheated out of medals.
As for knowing it was going on, well colour me naive, but not on this scale. Back in London 2012 on this very forum I called out the female winner of the 1500 as a cheat (before she won) but I was completely and utterly taken in by Mariya Savinova for example, who was one of my favourite athletes because her improvement seemed consistent and she seemed like a pure-trained tough of the track.
I also didn't know that the East Germans, and Czechs were cheating wholesale back in the day until it came to light, but once it had it was clear that the Chinese, Greeks and some Turks were dubious and I could write off their victories in my mind because they were obvious frauds and everyone knew it.
But I find this corrupt shambles, after all the talk of improved technology and rigourous testing methods, to be quite painful. The trust has been shatterred. Even Coe is implicated. Where do you think the sport would be if Gatlin had beaten Bolt at the WC and then this escalating scandal broke? That's how much of a knife edge the sport is on right now. Of course I will continue to watch athletics but how many new fans will the sport attract? It's tough to enjoy a sport where you have to wait for five years of checks and balances before you can cheer for the winner....
* Athletes holding up-to-date registrations with their Home Country governing body
* Key Club Contacts
* ‘Star volunteers’ who are imperative to the running of athletics clubs
* The Sport’s database of licensed coaches and officials
* British Athletics Loyal Buyers who have attended multiple athletics events
* British Athletics Supporters Club
Invitations will be sent by UKA or the applicable home country governing bodies. Further details for the general public (timetable, pricing etc) will be released in April.
* Akela Jones (BAR) tops the women's pentathlon world rankings with a NR of 4643
* Reza Ghasemi (IRI) tops the men's 60m world rankings with a NR of 6.52. Can't remember the last time an Iranian produced a WL in a track event
* 20 year-old Yulimar Rojas (VEN) tops the women's triple jump world rankings with an AR of 14.69m
* In the men's pole vault, outdoor world champion Shawnacy Barber (CAN) recently became the latest member of the 6m club with another NR
* Kendra Harrison (USA) tops the women's 60mH world rankings with a PB of 7.83
UKA usually send substantial squads to the WICh, so it's a bit unusual to see fewer notable British performances than usual at this point in the season, Muir and Pozzi aside. The loss of the Glasgow International Match is a factor.