Radcliffe backs Coe to resolve latest doping scandalRadcliffe backs Coe to resolve latest doping scandal

Marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe is confident IAAF president Sebastian Coe can get athletics back on track after the latest revelations over doping rocked the sport.

A second report compiled by an independent commission of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Thursday that the IAAF Council, which included Coe, "could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics".

Despite those findings, commission chairman Dick Pound said the double Olympic 1,500m champion remained the best man to reform the IAAF after years of corruption and nepotism under his Senegalese predecessor Lamine Diack.

And British star Radcliffe, who in November was declared innocent of any blood doping by the IAAF after being publicly accused, agrees Coe is the right man to save the sport's tattered reputation.

"Yes, I absolutely do believe that. He is a strong person," Radcliffe told Sky News. He put himself forward to run for president when, as Dick Pound says, he couldn't have been unaware of the state that the sport was in and the changes that needed to be made.

"He needed to be in position to instigate those changes. I do believe he's someone who cares deeply about our sport and will fight to put those changes in place."

Radcliffe added on BBC Radio Five Live: "People needed to shout louder. That is a key argument that can be used against all members of that council. They must have had some inclination.

"Probably, if you ask Seb (Coe) honestly, he would be the first to admit that he wasn't fully there for a lot of that tenure. He was concentrating on London, he was concentrating on other things and it's only really in the run-up to the presidential elections, and since then, that he has been fully invested in seeing what's going on.

"And I think that's why now he is putting the right changes in place. Should questions have been asked and should people have challenged (Lamine) Diack more? Of course more people should have done that."
Source: AFP