IAAF backs life ban for steroid users

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) welcomed a US proposal to ban athletes for life if they test positive for ster...

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) welcomed a US proposal to ban athletes for life if they test positive for steroids. ‘‘It certainly is a positive signal and indicates a desire and wish to show the world that they want to have a clean sport,’’ IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai said in a telephone interview from the federation’s Monaco headquarters yesterday.

The American governing body USA Track & Field (USATF), which has been under attack after a series of doping controversies, agreed at its annual meeting on Sunday to call for life bans.

The decision was immediately denounced as unenforceable by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound, who condemned it as ‘‘some kind of grandstand play’’.

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‘‘(USATF chief executive) Craig Masback is a very good lawyer and he knows perfectly well that’s unenforceable,’’ Pound said. Gyulai agreed lifetime bans would be difficult to enforce in some countries. After a series of court cases, the IAAF Congress halved its four-year bans for serious drugs offences in 1997.

But Gyulai said the USATF proposal showed there was a world-wide concern with doping in all sports, not just in track and field. ‘‘We must be certain that it can be implemented, especially in countries famous for litigation,’’ Gyulai added. (Reuters)

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