Coe supports Euro ban on Chambers

LONDON: London 2012 Olympics organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe has supported a ban by European promoters on British sprinter Dwain Chambers.

Euromeetings Group president Rajne Soderberg, who represents 46 promoters, has confirmed that Chambers will not be welcome at any of their meetings after serving a two-year doping ban.

"If you are a European meet promoter you are a commercial animal, you are putting on track meets and you are responding to the gut instincts of the audiences that you are bringing in," Coe told BBC radio on Sunday.

"Rajne Soderberg understands the anxieties that there is amongst the crowd that what they are watching is legitimate.

"The risk we run here is that we don't have these kind of debates. I think it is perfectly reasonable for independent meet promoters in our large European meets and meets elsewhere around the world to take a tough line."

Coe, a two-time Olympic 1,500m champion, is also a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, which has been lobbying the World Anti-Doping Agency since 2005 to double the minimum ban for a serious doping offense to four years.

"I want to have the standard of four because I don't think two years is enough, a big enough deterrent," Coe said.

"It needs to be proportionate to the damage that is being done to the sport."

Coe is also concerned that recent doping controverises are discouraging parents from introducing their children to track and field.

"If you are a parent, you have the thoughts and considerations of your children at heart and the thought a child is entering a sport that is cavalier about performance-enhancing drugs will see people voting with their feet and finding a sport they are comfortable with. We must not be in that position."

Double world sprint champion Tyson Gay of the United States told the BBC he was not opposed to racing against Chambers.

"I would treat him just like any of my other competitors," he said. "I'm not going to treat him any different or have any hatred toward him."

Agencies

(China Daily 02/19/2008 page24)