Sebastian Coe, president of the embattled world athletics governing body, has insisted there is no agreed time frame for Russia’s return to world competition following systemic doping revelations.
In a new report by ARD’s Hajo Seppelt Coe also admitted he has never seen the August documentary that contained allegations that the IAAF failed to follow up on hundreds of suspicious blood tests and prompted him to declare they amounted to a “war on my sport”.
Coe, who will this week face a Parliamentary select committee, said he had been travelling at the time and had read a transcript of the programme instead.
In the new film the German journalist whose incendiary documentary 12 months ago exposed the extent of state-sponsored doping in Russia, Coe also conceded the positive effects of performance enhancing drugs could remain in an athlete’s system beyond a ban.
“This is a historic challenge as well. Longitudinal studies have shown now almost conclusively that athletes that have doped, that have used performance enhancing drugs – not all performance enhancing drugs but particularly some of those muscle growth drugs – have that benefit for many years to come,” said Coe.
He also said he had never had the opportunity to meet the whistleblowers, Vitaliy Stepanov and his wife Yuliya, who made the undercover videos that formed a key plank of evidence in Seppelt’s report and Dick Pound’s later damning independent report for Wada.
“Actually I haven’t had the opportunity to ever see her or meet her. There is a process going on,” said Coe. “We will learn the lessons that I need to learn and absorb as the president of this federation.”
The Stepanovs, now living abroad, were specifically singled out for praise by Pound, who called for a culture change in the treatment of whistleblowers by sport in general.
Russian officials have said they will do all they can to return to competition in time for the Rio Olympics and the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, has said he expects them to do so.
The International Association of Athletics Federations has now put an inspection team in place and laid down a list of conditions with which Russia must comply before being re-admitted to the sport.
“This isn’t just about structural changes. This is also about cultural change,” said Coe. “We need a generation of coaches everywhere that think it’s quite possible to coach athletes cleanly and with integrity to reach the very highest level. I am not setting time frames on that.”
ARD’s report also suggested that three senior Kenyan athletics officials were set to be suspended by the IAAF after corruption allegations levelled at their national association led to demonstrations by furious athletes.
It said David Okeyo, the Kenyan member of the IAAF council, and his predecessor Isaiah Kiplagat would face action along with the team manager, Joseph Kinyua.
“Yes, it’s quite possible. The ethics committee is looking at that,” said Coe, confirming that Okeyo did not come to last week’s Council meeting in Monaco.
Coe, who last week dropped his controversial contract with Nike in the face of criticism over a possible conflict of interest and outlined his reform plans, also pointed out there was an ongoing French police investigation.
Earlier this month his predecessor as president, Lamine Diack, was arrested along with the former head of the IAAF anti-doping unit Gabriel Dollé and the former IAAF legal adviser Habib Cissé. Prosecutors also said they would arrest Diack’s son, Papa Massata, if he set foot in France.
