No deadline on Russia return

IAAF president cuts ties with sports giant Nike

The question of whether Russia will take part in next year's Olympic Games was no clearer on Thursday after IAAF president Sebastian Coe held a news conference dominated instead by his personal relationship with Nike.

Russia was banned from athletics two weeks ago after a report by the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency detailed systematic, state-sponsored doping and related corruption in the country that had "sabotaged" the 2012 Olympics in London.

The Russian athletics federation said on Thursday it would not appeal against the ban and would work closely with the governing IAAF and WADA to put measures in place that would lead to a reinstatement, but Coe was unable to give a timeframe.

Coe spent most of the 40-minute news conference answering questions about his decision to cut his ties with sportswear company Nike and though the Russia situation was expected to be the main topic of the council meeting, he said it had only been "touched upon".

Athletics superpower Russia will definitely miss the world indoor championships in Portland, in the United States, in March but Coe would not be drawn on the country's prospects of being allowed back in time for the August Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"There is no deadline," he said. "It is for the IAAF to decide the right and proper moment for the Russian federation and their clean athletes to get back into competition.

"It is our instinct to get clean athletes back into competition but that is entirely predicated on the speed with which we can get our inspection team and the Russian federation to meet.

"Only then, when we're entirely satisfied that we have enacted the change that we want, will we welcome back the clean athletes."

The global head of athletics, Coe, has promised to do all he can to clean up the battered reputation of his sport and the organization that runs it and has already made changes in the way the IAAF operates in Monaco.

Reforms begin

At Thursday's council meeting Coe told his colleagues he had canceled the annual contract which provided a permanent serviced apartment in the five-star Fairmont Hotel for the president's use.

The IAAF said he had also closed the president's office, Villa Miraflores, and handed it back to the Principality of Monaco.

All IAAF staff personnel based there have transferred to the organization's headquarters on Monaco's Quai Antoine.

Coe has said athletics has been "shamed" by relentless doping cases and corruption allegations.

Coe had already canceled the IAAF's annual gala held to present the sportsman and woman of the year awards.

Those honors, won by American decathlete Ashton Eaton and Ethiopian 1,500 meter world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, were instead announced at Thursday's news conference following the IAAF council meeting.

The former British Member of Parliament had left his audience reeling when he delivered a further explanation that would have made his former Civil Service colleagues beam with pride.

"The issue is going to be a synthesis of the conclusion on precise criteria," he said, testing the talents of the six simultaneous translators sitting in a booth alongside him.

Much of Thursday's meeting was taken up with an agenda item entitled "integrity and governance" as the IAAF seeks to reform itself in the wake of criticism from WADA's commission and against a background of Coe's presidential predecessor Lamine Diack facing a French police investigation into doping-related corruption.

IAAF president Sebastian Coe attends the IAAF news conference in Monaco on Thursday. Coe announced he is stepping down from his paid ambassadorial role for sportswear firm Nike. Jeanpierre Amet / Reuters

(China Daily 11/28/2015 page12)