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Bach backs Coe and redistribution of medals

 

Bach backs Coe and redistribution of medals

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AOC
Bach backs Coe and redistribution of medals
IOC President Thomas Bach admitted Wednesday the Russian doping scandal is "sad and shocking" but insisted IAAF chief Sebastian Coe is the man to clean up track and field.

IOC: International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach admitted Wednesday the Russian doping scandal is "sad and shocking" but insisted IAAF chief Sebastian Coe is the man to clean up track and field.

Russian athletes face being blacklisted from international competition after a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report highlighted "state sponsored doping".

"What the report shows is sad and shocking," said Bach, pointing to allegations that some officials demanded vast sums of money to hush up positive dope tests.

"I would never have imagined that in an international federation, money would be solicited from athletes to manipulate results."

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will meet in Monaco on Friday where they could follow the WADA recommendations and slap a worldwide ban Russian athletes.

Bach said recently-appointed IAAF president Coe was the right man to clean up the sport with less than a year to go to the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

"I have confidence in Sebastian Coe and his team to implement all that is necessary to clean up the federation and the IAAF is going to announce its decisions on Friday.

"Medals could be taken back and redistributed, athletes and officials will be sanctioned and excluded by the IAAF," added the German when quizzed on the range of sanctions available.

"All athletes who were not eligible for the Olympics in London or for other Games for violating the anti-doping code will be disqualified and their medals withdrawn and reallocated."

Australia race walker Jared Tallent was beaten for the 50km gold at the London Olympics by a Russian athlete Sergey Kirdyapkin, who the WADA report shows should have been ruled out and not able to compete at London 2012. The Court of Arbitration in Sport will make a decision on 2 December. More here>>> Kirdyapkin is currently serving a doping ban and scheduled to return to competition in February in time to qualify for Rio 2016.

AFP and AOC

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