Coe for short term punishment

Both English athletes now face the possibility of a two-year ban and the publicity comes at a bad time for the sport just over a week before competition starts in Manchester.

“This is not the story we wanted going into the Commonwealth Games or coming out of a European trials meeting in Birmingham which was of a very high order,” Coe told BBC Radio Five live.

“Of course it gives athletics a bad press. Open competition can be the only way to judge the skills and abilities of athletes and if it is reduced to a battle between chemists, it is not how to judge sport.

“I think a few people will be in shock this morning but out of 500 tests in competition every year — and we have gone two years without one — you will eventually catch one.

“If you want to create the image of a drug-free sport, don’t test. We are not trying to hide the problem like other sports. I would rather have the short-term embarrassment enroute to a clean sport.”

Coe won 1,500m gold and 800m silver at both the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the Los Angeles event four years later.