Reuters
Beijing, August 19: Sebastian Coe was elected as the new head of international athletics Wednesday and promised to stand by his campaign pledge to set up an independent anti-doping body for the embattled sport.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has been battered by allegations over the last three weeks of widespread doping in track and field.
While the 58-year-old Briton said an independent body was the only way to ensure an end to any question about the IAAF’s vigilance, he also said he was inheriting a ‘very strong sport’ from Senegalese Lamine Diack.
A twice Olympic 1,500 metres champion, and head of the organisers for the 2012 London Olympics, Coe won the presidency by beating Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka 115-92 in a ballot of the IAAF’s 50th Congress.
“I’ve had the joys of Olympic competition, I’ve had the joys of being part of something special in London a few years ago, but this for me is the pinnacle,” Coe said.
“It is my sport, it’s my passion, it’s the thing that I’ve always wanted to do. This is a sport that is strong, I have the responsibility to make it stronger, and I will,” he added.
The election took place against the background of a public relations crisis for the IAAF, which was accused of failing in its duty to address the scourge of doping.
A former Conservative politician in Britain, Coe has aggressively defended the IAAF’s record on doping since the leak of blood test data to the media.
But on Wednesday, he made no mention of the subject in his speeches to delegates before and after the vote, only addressing the issue at the ensuing news conference.
“There is zero tolerance to the abuse of doping in my sport and I want to continue that. I will maintain that to the very highest level of vigilance,” he said.
Outgoing president Diack, who has run the body for the last 16 years, said he was delighted to finally have a successor.
“The white-haired generation has done what it could, and now over to the black-haired generation,” he said.
