Lord Coe says doping allegations 'as bad as' disgraced Olympic champ Ben Johnson's case

British politician and former track and field athlete Lord Sebastian Coe has linked doping in athletes with Ben Johnson, saying that the current doping allegations surrounding athletics could be as bad as the case of the disgraced 1988 Olympic 100-metre champion.

A German TV station had accused the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) of not probing 150 suspect blood samples, including one of an unnamed British star, but Russia denied the claims that its officials were paid to supply banned substances and cover up tests, rejecting the allegations as a pack of lies.

Russian Athletics Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev said that the documentary, shown by the German television channel, was a planned attempt to create an ugly scandal within Russian athletics and Russian sport in general, The BBC reported.

Coe, the double Olympic 1500-metre champion who successfully presided over the London Olympics in 2012, is an IAAF vice-president and would run for the world governing body's presidency next year.

Coe said that in the 40 years of his involvement in athletics there have been big moments like Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Balco, and added that these doping allegations are up there with them.

Coe said that he had not seen the list of blood samples spoken about in the documentary and called for the German documentary maker to send in his information.

Coe said that it has been a ghastly week for athletics, adding that they have to bring this tawdry episode to a close as quickly as they can, claiming that he doesn't know about the existence of the list.

He said that if the German journalist thinks that their organisation is sullied they would take a Wada official along. He added that his instinct is that the list won't be central to the allegations, adding that there are federations who might have been involved in systematic doping and officials have been involved.

Coe said that he is not afraid of embarrassment, adding that they have to get to the bottom of it.

Coe said he did not want to be drawn on benchmarking against other sports, but added that a light has been shone on something that clearly needs investigating. He claimed that if this is provable of course it is as bad as Johnson.

Canadian sprinter Johnson was stripped of his gold medal in the 100-metre at the 1988 Seoul Olympics after officials discovered that he was on steroids, the report added.