On the Scene - IAAF Urges WADA to Adopt Four-Year Doping Ban

(ATR) The IAAF confirms its intent to re-establish four-year sanctions for serious doping offenses and exerts subtle pressure on the World Anti-Doping Agency to do the same.

"The new WADA Code, which will come into force on 1 January 2015, will reflect our firm commitment to have tougher penalties and the IAAF will return to four-year sanctions for serious doping offenses," says the statement of the IAAF Council, approved by acclamation Thursday by the 208 member nations at the 49th IAAF Congress in Moscow.

"The IAAF will not stint in its resolve to do everything in its power to eradicate cheating and the Council invites Congress to strongly endorse this statement."

The IAAF is urging WADA to adopt stricter sanctions at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg in November. The current ban is a minimum of two years, but sanctions rarely exceed the minimum.

Other sports federations, particularly those with professional athletes, have resisted the four-year suspensions.

"I believe that everyone in our organization supports tougher bans," Robert Hersh of the United States, the IAAF’s senior vice president, tells Around the Rings. "We always did. We had a four-year ban way back when and for legal reasons we were compelled to cut it back."

Hersh said that the European courts said in effect that the IAAF sanctions could not be stricter than those imposed by WADA. "The sense of this organization was always that serious steroid offenses be punished four years, on a first offense," Hersh said. "We cut it back only reluctantly and only because we lost a court case (in the 1990s) and it was apparent that we would have lost more."

Hersh said the IAAF will toughen its sanctions "to the extent we can legally do four years."

At the request of the IAAF Council, the Congress also mandated it with the constitutional power to implement the new WADA Code once it goes into effect.

Hersh said that was necessary because the next Congress doesn’t take place until after the new WADA Code comes into effect. "We really needed to have some mechanism for adopting new rules that may be necessary to bring us into compliance with the WADA code," he added. "We can’t do that now because the WADA Code hasn’t been finalized."

The statement reiterates "the IAAF’s long standing and unwavering commitment against doping in athletics" and its position historically as the "pioneering international sport federation in the field of anti-doping".

"The IAAF’s collection of the blood samples of nearly 2000 athletes in Daegu, as part of our commitment to the Athlete Biological Passport, was an historic achievement across all sports, and continues in Moscow.

"The IAAF will carry on investing in education, controls and sanctions, applying the most sophisticated methods in pursuit of its goal, and using every means at its disposal to expose the cheats," the statement adds.

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, who tested positive for a diuretic, was the first high-profile bust this year. She was followed soon after by Tyson Gay, the U.S. champion at 100 and 200 meters, and Asafa Powell and Sherone Simpson of Jamaica.

New WADA Chief to be Nominated

On Friday, the IOC Executive Board is slated to nominate the next president of WADA. WADA's presidency alternates between thesports world and governments, which help fund the agency’s work. John Fahey, a former federal minister for finance in Australia, has been WADA president since 2007.

U.S. Olympic champion hurdler Edwin Moses will stand against Britain’s Craig Reedie, an IOC vice president, and former IOC medical and scientific director Patrick Schamasch for the volunteer position.

David Oliver of the United States, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist who is competing here in the 110-meter hurdles, says that Moses as a former athlete "can speak from an athlete’s point of view".

Oliver said he has read some of Moses’ views online:"I think he would be a good ambassador in that position for athletes and just make sure the doping people are getting tough."

Moses won the Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles in 1976 and 1984 and had a 10-year unbeaten streak.

If Moses, who entered the race late compared to the other candidates, is successful, he would be a rare U.S. official to head an international body in the world of sports.

"I’m impressed by the way that he carries himself," Oliver said. "Sometimes we have athletes that accomplish a whole lot, and they come off as bigger than everyone else, but he’s somebody that’s still humble, but very knowledgeable, very well-spoken and very educated. He’s a great role model and just giving him a platform on such a big issue as doping, it’s a good move."

Reported by Karen Rosen in Moscow

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