ATHENS, Feb 16: Chairman World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Richard Pound said on Friday he had no regrets about his abrasive style in dealing with famous athletes which earned him a warning from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“I’m very happy to be known by the enemies I make,” WADA chief Richard Pound told reporters on the sidelines of an anti-doping conference in Athens. “You're dealing in most cases with organised cheating and hypocrisy beyond belief. You've got to challenge them, you've got to be right in their face,” he added.

Demonised in Athens prior to the 2004 Games for making acidic remarks on the city's sluggish preparations, Pound has more recently drawn fire over comments about two top American cyclists, seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and 2006 victor Floyd Landis.

The Canadian IOC member has suggested Armstrong took the blood-doping substance erythropoietin (EPO) during the Tour de France in 1999, based on the findings of an accredited French laboratory that retroactively tested his urine samples years later.

Last year, he made sarcastic remarks about Landis' “Herculean effort” to win the 2006 race after the cyclist tested positive for a banned substance.

Acting on a complaint by Armstrong, the IOC ethics commission, earlier this month, said Pound was obliged to “exercise greater prudence...when making public pronouncements that may affect the reputation of others,” the Los Angeles Times and New York Times reported.

Pound on Friday said the IOC sought to influence how WADA acts, how its president acts, and I said, 'I'm sorry but you don't have that jurisdiction.'”

Though Pound is an IOC member, WADA is an independent body. “You can't be prudent in the fight against doping,” Pound said. “We're in this difficulty in the first place because everyone is too prudent to mention that cheating is going on.”—AFP