IAAF to reintroduce four-year drug ban in 2015
MOSCOW, Russia (CMC) –Track and field’s governing body has announced plans to re-introduce a four-year ban in 2015for serious drug violations.
President Lamine Diack has also said that the IAAF will also be pushing the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to do the same to strengthen the deterrent against cheats.
Member federations backed the leaders in seeking tougher WADA sanctions in a vote by acclamation at the IAAF congress on Thursday.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said it is ready to press ahead on its own if other sports refuse to upgrade the sanction from two years.
The new WADA code goes into effect in 2015.
Diack said the IAAF will move to four-year sanctions regardless of what is decided at the November 12-15 World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg.
“Up to 2015 it will still be two years,” Diack said. “From then on, as far as the IAAF is concerned, it will be four years.”
IAAF officials have always stressed they were ready to impose four-year sanctions and only grudgingly adapted to the two-year penalties in 1997.
They fear new steps next November will again fall short in effectively deterring athletes.
“The four-year ban is not a slam dunk,” said Abby Hoffman, the IAAF’s anti-doping task force coordinator.
“We need to be sure that space is carved out in the anti-doping campaign for athletics to impose the ban that we know our athletes and our members want.”
The issue has gained prominence ahead of the World Championships, which start Saturday in Moscow after several high-profile doping scandals have clouded preparations.
