• Athletics

Coe: 'IAAF must act to save athletics'

Lord Sebastian Coe plans to run for the athletics world governing body's presidency © Getty Images

Enlarge

The current doping allegations plaguing athletics could be as damaging as the case of disgraced Olympic champion Ben Johnson, according to Lord Coe.

Coe, a double Olympic 1500m champion and figurehead for the 2012 London Olympics, told the BBC that the current allegations will go down in history.

"In the 40 years I have been involved in athletics there have been big moments - Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Balco," he said. "This is up there.

"It has been a ghastly week for athletics. We have to bring this tawdry episode to a close as quickly as we can."

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has been accused by a TV documentary of failing to probe 150 suspect blood samples, including one of an unnamed British star.

Coe is currently an IAAF vice-president and plans to run for presidency next year, but said he had not seen the list of blood samples spoken about in the documentary.

"I don't know about the existence of the list," he said. "The IAAF does not know what it contains and whether it has any veracity at all. If there is more info out there then please let us know.

"If the German journalist thinks our organisation is sullied - I can understand why people are questioning it - we would take a Wada [World Anti-Doping Agency] official along. I am not afraid of embarrassment. We have to get to the bottom of it."

Russia has also been forced to deny claims that its officials were paid to supply banned substances and cover up positive tests, rejecting the allegations as a "pack of lies".

Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev said the documentary, shown by German television channel Das Erste, was "a planned attempt to create an ugly scandal within Russian athletics and Russian sport in general".

When asked if these allegations were equivalent to the doping scandal in cycling, Coe said he did not wish to compare other sports, but added: "A light has been shone on something that clearly needs investigating. If this is provable, of course it is [as bad as Ben Johnson]."

Canadian sprinter Johnson set consecutive world records in the 100m at the 1987 World Championships and the 1988 Olympics, but was stripped of his records and medals after a positive test for steroids.

US athlete Marion Jones was similarly disgraced after she was stripped of her 100m silver and 200m gold medals at the 2001 World Championships for supplementing her training by slipping tablets from Victor Conte's Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) under her tongue.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd