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| December 9, 2003 | Tuesday | Shawwal 14, 1424 |
IAAF supports lifetime bans
LONDON, Dec 8: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) welcomed on Monday a U.S. proposal to ban athletes for life if they test positive for steroids.
“It certainly is a positive signal and indicates a desire and wish to show the world that they want to have a clean sport,” IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai said in a telephone interview from the federation’s Monaco headquarters.
The American governing body USA Track & Field, which has been under attack after a series of doping controversies, agreed at its annual meeting on Sunday to call for lifetime bans.
The decision was immediately denounced as unenforceable by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound, who condemned it as “some kind of grandstand play”.
“(USATF chief executive) Craig Masback is a very good lawyer and he knows perfectly well that’s unenforceable,” Pound said.
Gyulai agreed lifetime bans would be difficult to enforce in some countries. After a series of court cases, the IAAF halved its four-year bans for serious drugs offences in 1997.—Reuters
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