Olympians oppose new athletics world record proposals

BERLIN (Reuters) - A proposal for new world record ratification rules that could have a retroactive effect faced opposition from the World Olympians Associations (WOA) on Friday, who said it would cast suspicion on all past performances.





European Athletics, the body governing the sport in Europe, called this week for new ratification rules to maintain the integrity of the sport, calling for higher technical standards and increased doping control measures.

It said previous race records were not judged according to the new standards so performances could not be compared.

The WOA, a member organisation for some 120,0000 past and present Olympians, said every athlete would thus be presumed guilty.

"WOA is committed to ensuring that all athletes are treated as innocent until proven otherwise," WOA President Joel Bouzou said in a statement.

"As a result, we must question the recommendations made by European Athletics to reset any world or European record that was held by an athlete who has not met their proposed criteria.

"The criteria recommended by European Athletics have a very wide reach, and seem likely to affect many clean athletes, inevitably leading to innocent record holders being stripped of their achievements," Bouzou said.

European Athletics will forward a report to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which will study it at its council meeting in August.

The report proposes that world and European records should only be recognised if the performance is achieved at an approved event where high standards of officiating and technical equipment can be guaranteed.

It also calls for an agreed number of doping control tests in the months before the performance and the doping sample after the record to be stored and made available for re-testing for 10 years.





(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Tom Heneghan)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world