P17 Layout 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015 SPORTS Coe says IAAF must restore sport’s trust and integrity BEIJING: Sebastian Coe wants the public people out from world championship- to “fall in love again with athletics” and winning positions.” one of his priorities as the new IAAF president will be to restore the sport’s MEDIA COVERAGE trust and integrity, he said yesterday. Coe denied he did not welcome The IAAF has been in crisis since data media coverage alleging widespread from thousands of blood samples was drug use and official cover-ups. “We leaked to two media organisations earli- shouldn’t ever hide away from the media er this month. “All the things I want really that wants to look and judge us,” said the to get stuck in to, in the first hundred Briton who took over as president earlier days actually, all that can only be predi- this month. cated on two immutable principles of “For me the issue was really about the trust and integrity,” Coe told the BBC very selective use of information that while attending the world champi- actually shouldn’t have been in the pub- onships. lic domain, it was very private informa- The double Olympic 1,500 metres tion, and information you could not champion added he must banish the extrapolate from in terms of one simple notion all leading athletes are using per- reading.” formance-enhancing drugs. “Our overall objective is to get the “We’ve got to kill the perception that cheats out of our sport but my objective somehow the IAAF has been sitting on over the coming years is for the clean its hands, or is in some way complicit, in athletes to know there is absolutely no not doing enough,” said Coe of the question I am in their corner.” sport’s governing body. Coe said he wanted sanctions for “I’ve been on the Council since drug cheats to be proportionate. “That is 2003...we have driven high-profile cheats why we pushed to go back from the two out of the sport and we’ve paid a high years [mandatory ban] to four years price for doing that. because two years is a mere blip in a “In 2005 we were a sport that still had career,” he explained. “Four years is a very the prescience to start collecting sam- serious time out of sport. “I don’t want to ples knowing one day the technology see people coming back quickly from a would emerge and we could go back 10 ban where it is viewed as a slap on the years, as we have done recently, and pull wrist.”— Reuters Sprint Queen Fraser-Pryce wins third world 100m title BEIJING: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce under- in the final, anything is possible. My start lined her status as Queen of the Sprints was good, I thought I was close enough to BEIJING: Kenya’s Ezekiel Kemboi (centre) takes the water jump on his way to winning the gold medal in the men’s 3000m steeplechase final at with an unprecedented third world cham- medal. Wow.” the World Athletics Championships at the Bird’s Nest stadium. — AP pionship 100 metres title at the Bird’s Nest stadium yesterday. MORE PREPARED Kemboi takes steeplechase crown With her long, dyed green braids flow- Like Schippers, American Tori Bowie has ing behind her, the diminutive Jamaican not long turned her focus to the sprints was not quickest out of the blocks but soon after being predominantly a long jumper BEIJING: Ezekiel Kemboi underlined his status as in 8:12.38, while Brimin Kiprop came third in the leading quintet until the bell sounded for got into her stride and powered down the and she claimed bronze in 10.86 ahead of one of the great Kenyan athletes by capturing 8:12.54. Another Kenyan, 2015 world rankings the final lap. track in 10.76 seconds to add to her titles in 2007 world champion Veronica Campbell- the world championship 3,000 metres steeple- leader Jairus Birech, was fourth in 8:12.62. “On Jager surged on to the shoulder of Kipruto Berlin in 2009 and Moscow two years ago. Brown (10.91). “I am delighted for the chase crown for a record fourth time yesterday. the last lap nobody could follow me,” said but, down the back straight, Kemboi overtook all Back at the same arena where she won medal but I wished I showed a much better The 33-year-old seized the gold medal thanks Kemboi as he confirmed he would race at the his rivals before producing one of his trademark the first of her two Olympic gold medals at race,” she said. “I think I will be much more to a devastating sub 57-second last-lap burst at Rio Olympics next year. “I will be celebrating victory dances after crossing the line. Kipruto said the 2008 Games, Fraser-Pryce locked up a prepared for next year’s Olympics. the Bird’s Nest Stadium. Kenya secured their first tonight with my team mates.” the Kenyan quartet had run as a team. “Our plan fifth title in the last six major champi- “Coming here, I did not know what to clean sweep in the event for eight years but the The prospect of an athlete challenging the was to go for gold, silver, bronze,” he explained.”I onships in the blue riband sprint. expect but I feel excited inside despite the anticipated challenge from Evan Jager faded on Kenyan monopoly in this event, 12 previous am happy I was able to assist my team, I sacrificed “I will always work hard and do my best,” fact it is not visible from the outside. This a the final lap as the American was unable to world champions were born in the African coun- myself for the team.” For Jager, 26, it was a case of she said. “When I ran the heats, I remem- major stepping stone for me.” match the speed of the Africans and trailed try, improved when Jager was runner-up at a going back to the drawing board. bered back at the 2008 Olympic Games Trinidad and Tobago team mates home sixth. Diamond League meeting in Paris last month. “Those guys are so freaking tough over the when I was a 21-year-old. Michelle-Lee Ahye (10.98) and Kelly-Ann Kemboi, who clocked eight minutes 11.28 last lap, running extremely fast over barriers,” he “I expected nothing then. And I came Baptiste (11.01) finished fifth and sixth with seconds, added the title to those he won in MODEST PACE said. “It’s something I haven’t figured out yet. out here again tonight and won a gold the third Jamaican Natasha Morrison and 2009, 2011 and 2013 and to the Olympic gold he However, the relatively modest early pace did “There’s a reason why the Kenyans have won medal. I am really excited.” Former heptath- Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare (both 11.02) landed in 2004 and 2012. not suit the rangy American yesterday. While every single steeplechase world championship lete Dafne Schippers almost caught Fraser- seventh and eighth respectively. Silver went to Conseslus Kipruto, who did Kipruto did much of the hard work up at the they’ve competed in for the last 12, 13 years so Pryce with a brilliant finish but was more Fraser-Pryce’s time was the second much of the pacesetting and hung on to finish front, Kemboi hardly moved from the back of it’s really tough.” — Reuters than satisfied with her second Dutch fastest of the year after her own 10.74 in national record of the night in 10.81 for Paris last month but she was not satisfied. second place. “I get tired of 10.7s,” the 28-year-old said. Bolt back in action as Gatlin The first European to win a medal in the “I just wanted to put a great race together. I 100 metres at a world championships since want a 10.6 something. Hopefully in my France’s Christine Arron in 2005, Schippers next race I’ll get it together. I just work hard was delighted to secure silver in her first and focus on executing.” seeks road to redemption season after giving up the multi-discipline Schippers will also compete in the 200 event to focus on the sprints. metres but Fraser-Pryce confirmed she BEIJING: Newly-crowned 100m champion Usain “It’s a national record, I’m second in the would not defend her world title in the Bolt makes a swift return to the track on the fourth world, it’s crazy,” the 23-year-old, who won longer sprint, despite being named on the day of the world championships in Beijing today world heptathlon bronze in 2013, said. Jamaica team for the event. when he goes off in round one of his favoured “It’s good for the country and good for “I am not considering the 200m, the 200m. Bolt pipped American rival Justin Gatlin by Europe. I was a little bit nervous in the plan has only been to only run in the one-hundredth of a second to claim victory in an semi-finals and after that I think, Okay, I’m 100m,” she said. — Reuters epic 100m battle at the Bird’s Nest on Sunday. The Jamaican has struggled this season with pelvic joint pain but came roaring back to clock a season’s best of 9.79sec at just the right time. His focus turned immediately to the 200m, in which he will be seeking a fourth consecutive title after hav- ing previously triumphed in Berlin, Daegu and Moscow.