New WADA report puts Coe in spotlight

AFP: IAAF president Sebastian Coe found himself at the eye of the storm on Thursday following fresh revelations about doping cover-ups at the top of his organisation.

The second report published by a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission said that the world governing body’s senior officials must have known about state-supported doping within Russian athletics.

Elected last August after pledging “the very highest level of vigilance with regard to doping”, Coe’s credibility has taken a battering with each new development in the scandal.

As recently as Wednesday, the 59-year-old two-time Olympic champion explicitly rejected allegations of a cover-up, telling Sky in a televised interview: “Was there a cover-up? No.”