The World Anti-Doping Agency is bracing itself for attempts to weaken the sanctions given to drugs cheats, its president said yesterday.
Two years ago, Wada doubled the length of bans to four years for first-time offenders in serious cases, with lifetime bans for a second offence. A review will take place in 2019 and Sir Craig Reedie expects some sports to argue for the sanctions to be diluted; others will want tougher penalties.
Doping sanctions are in the spotlight after Justin Gatlin’s victory in the 100m. The American sprinter has served two doping-related bans.
Reedie told The Times: “The last time the code was reviewed there was a general consensus that a two-year ban was not long enough, that came out very clearly across sport. The next review will be in 2019 and we . . . are aware some sports think that four years is too long for a first offence, and not everyone believes that lifetime bans are a good thing for a second offence.”
Wada took legal advice from Jean-Paul Costa, the former president of the European Court of Human Rights, over its rules and Reedie believes it would be difficult to make them more stringent. “You have to make sure the sanction is proportional to the offence,” he added. “Our belief is that the current code is working very well and only needs one or two modest alterations.”
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Sebastian Coe, the IAAF president, believes that Gatlin should have been banned for life and said the furore surrounding his victory over Usain Bolt was “a wake-up call” for sport. Coe said that fans who booed Gatlin after his win and during the medal ceremony should be free to express their feelings.
In a column in the Evening Standard, he said: “We’re not the thought police and we can’t tell people what to think or feel. I don’t want people not to care.”