Britain’s athletics federation yesterday called for all world records to be reset because of drugs and corruption scandals that have tainted the sport.
UK Athletics (UKA) also said in “A Manifesto for Clean Athletics” that serious drug cheats should face a lifetime ban.
“The integrity of athletics was challenged as never before in 2015. Clean athletes and sports fans the world over have been let down. Trust in the sport is at its lowest point for decades,” UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said.
“Greater transparency, tougher sanctions, longer bans — and even resetting the clock on world records for a new era — we should be open to do whatever it takes to restore credibility in the sport,” Warner added.
The International Association of Athletics Federations has been hit by doping scandals, while Russia was suspended and corruption involving top officials taking money to cover up doping failures rocked the sport and its governing institution.
With Kenya also at the center of doping allegations, a new report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Thursday is expected to cause a new storm.
The British 14-point manifesto also calls for WADA to further tighten rules on permitted drugs, a public register of all tests and for all athletes at world championships to have a valid biological passport.
UK Athletics also said that sponsors should not support athletes found guilty of serious doping offenses.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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