Fredericks Steps Aside from IAAF Council Amid Corruption Probe

(ATR) Namibian IOC member Frank Fredericks has stepped aside from his IAAF functions pending the results of an IOC ethics investigation.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe confirmed that Fredericks had temporarily relinquished his IAAF duties and would not attend a council meeting in London in April.

"I have spoken to him regularly since this issue came out and he decided to step away from all this as he needs time to sort all this," Coe told reporters in Kampala, Uganda, where the cross-country world championships took place on Sunday.

"He also indicated that he will not attend the council meeting in London," Coe was quoted by the Associated Press.

Earlier this month, the four-time Olympic silver medalist was forced to step down from his role as chair of the IOC’s 2024 evaluation commission. The same week he quit the IAAF taskforce probing the state-sponsored doping scandal in Russia.

Fredericks is being investigated by the IOC ethics panel over a payment of $299,300 he received from a business controlled by the son of disgraced ex-IAAF president Lamine Diack the day the IOC awarded the 2016 Olympics to Rio.

The former chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission denies any wrongdoing following the allegations published by French newspaper Le Monde. Fredericks said the payment went to fund youth sport programs in Namibia.

Although Fredericks has not quit his IOC membership, he has also stepped down as chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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