OSAKA, Aug 23: The international athletics federation on Thursday called on the World Anti-Doping Agency to impose tougher sanctions for drug offenders, including four-year bans for serious first-time infractions.

IAAF President Lamine Diack said he would not hesitate to seek such four-year terms for his federation alone if he considered some first-time infractions so blatant they needed a stronger approach.

“If need be we can take our own measures when we find it necessary to apply four-year sanctions,” Diack said, arguing the harsher bans could be applied as exceptional circumstances.

WADA will review its doping code at a Nov 15-17 conference in Madrid but is unlikely to change its current sanction benchmark of two years for first-time offenders.

Four-year sanctions would be more vulnerable on appeal if the current WADA rules are confirmed.

“We are now relatively isolated,” Diack said. But he added that the IAAF would lobby hard to have steroid abuse defined as exceptional circumstances worthy of tougher sanctions.

“We hope we can define the substances and circumstances under which higher sanctions can be asked,” he said.

Sports like cycling and soccer were already loath to accept a two-year benchmark, which was instituted in 2004. Any change to tougher sanctions is expected to meet with opposition, including arguments that such penalties will not stand up in civil courts.

The IAAF held its rule-making Congress ahead of the Aug 25-Sept 2 world championships.

While doping scandals have centered on cycling and baseball over the past few months, athletics has suffered too.

Justin Gatlin, the double-gold sprint star of the last world championships in Helsinki, Finland, two years ago, is not in Japan.

Gatlin, also the 100-metre gold medallist at the Athens Olympics, tested positive for testosterone and steroids in April 2006 and is fighting charges that could see him suspended for eight years.

Russian world record holder Tatyana Lysenko and a fellow hammer thrower tested positive for doping in out-of-competition tests on May 9, and Russia’s team coach was suspended in the scandal.

Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak, the 800-metre indoor world record holder, has been suspended after testing positive for the blood-booster EPO.

The IAAF promised to carry out the sport’s most rigorous anti-doping programme to date with more than 1,000 tests during the championships.—AP