LONDON (AP) — IAAF presidential candidate Sebastian Coe says creating an independent anti-doping agency in athletics would help combat allegations that the governing body is not doing enough to weed out drug cheats or is complicit in the sport’s doping problems.
Coe says “we need a system that removes any perception out there that there is either conflict or complicity.”
The British former middle-distance Olympic and world champion has proposed the IAAF set up an independent body that will speed up the handling of doping cases and remove any impression of conflict of interest.
He says “it is really important we close down at every opportunity the perception that in some way what we are doing is mired in conflict.”
Coe reiterated his defense of the IAAF against allegations it has failed to act on evidence of widespread blood doping in the sport.
