British Olympic Association Chair Sebastian Coe said that "the current doping allegations surrounding athletics could be as bad as the case of disgraced 1988 Olympic 100m champion
Ben Johnson," according to the BBC. A German TV station accused the Int'l Association of Athletics Federations "of not probing 150 suspect blood samples, including one of an unnamed British star." Russia "has denied claims its officials were paid to supply banned substances and cover up tests, rejecting the allegations as 'a pack of lies.'" Coe said, "In the 40 years I have been involved in athletics there have been big moments -- Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Balco. This is up there." The IAAF and the
World Anti-Doping Agency said that "they will look into the claims." Coe said that "he had not seen the list of blood samples spoken about in the documentary and called for the German documentary maker to send in his information." Coe: "It has been a ghastly week for athletics. We have to bring this tawdry episode to a close as quickly as we can. I don't know about the existence of the list." When asked if he feared the allegations were equivalent to the doping scandal in cycling, Coe said that "he did not want to be drawn on benchmarking against other sports" (
BBC, 12/14). REUTERS' Drazen Jorgic wrote Olympic champion David Rudisha said that Kenya's reputation "has been tarnished by allegations that the world athletics body covered up or did not investigate suspicious blood tests of some Kenyan athletes." Rudisha: "It’s really very sad to hear of this. It’s not only damaging Kenya's reputation, it’s also ruining the rest of sport." Rudisha said that the doping claims "were also threatening sponsorship money coming into athletics." Rudisha believes that "WADA and Kenya have not done enough to combat doping in the east African country famed for middle and long-distance running." Rudisha: "I think both need to do something because so far I’ve never seen anything to do with educating athletes in Kenya about doping" (
REUTERS, 12/12).
