Doping is a "scourge" and "sport is dead" if track and field fans don't believe what they see, outgoing IAAF president Lamine Diack has warned in an interview with AFP.
Speaking ahead of the vote by the 214 member federations of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to choose either Sergey Bubka or Sebastian Coe as their new president, Diack told AFP of his admiration for Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt, but also lamented the fact that doping remained a massive issue.
"When confronted with painful issues such as doping the IAAF have always stood firm and we continue to lead the way in this global fight against cheating," Diack insisted, with the world championships due to start on August 22 after the IAAF Congress.
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"We will not let doping damage the credibility of our sport, and we will not stint in our crusade to have a clean sport, and to the extent of our investment and resolve in this respect athletics arguably leads the sports world's fight against this scourge.
"The IAAF completely understand the importance of the credibility in competition. I have said on many occasions that when the day comes where we no longer can believe what we see then sport is dead.
"But I am convinced that the majority of athletes compete clean. We have an obligation to them to root out the cheats and make sure that it is possible to win clean."
The IAAF has in recent weeks been at the centre of allegations of widespread cheating and suspicious blood tests involving hundreds of athletes. The Monaco-based body responded by calling the claims "sensationalist and confusing".
"Despite recent allegations, I have no doubt of the quality of the IAAF's anti-doping work over many decades. It has been exceptional," Diack said.
Turning to the likes of American Justin Gatlin, who has served two doping bans but is now a serious threat to Bolt in Beijing, Diack was adamant that he had the right to compete under current IAAF anti-doping rules which are fully compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
"The IAAF is a member of WADA and we fight doping under that international umbrella organisation. One of the responsibilities and obligations of membership and of signing up to the World Anti-Doping Code is that you adopt the same universal rules and regulations as all sports," Diack said.
