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Established 1961 13 Sports Thursday, October 5, 2017 IAAF head Coe seeks radical change to keep athletics relevant IAAF is now an example for all sports in terms of transparency LONDON: The 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships ed him giving up many of the powers previously attached to could have a very different look to this year’s event, IAAF the Presidency, had been put in place he is free to address head Sebastian Coe said yesterday as he explained how the athletics’ external problems. The former double Olympic sport is embracing radical change in the fight to “stay rele- 1500 metres champion has long recognised the shortcomings vant”. Established track and field events could be cut from of the Diamond League and promised changes for next sea- the programme - though the former British politician was son. He also said he had concerns over the sport’s obsession careful not to name any in the firing line - while some of the with times, recognising that fans were more engaged by great basic presumptions that have underpinned the sport for over racing. “There has got to be drama, nobody wants to watch a a century are up for debate. procession,” he said. “Everything is on the table. Frankly, I’m not ruling anything A fan of city-centre events Coe said he was happy to look out,” Coe told journalists at at suggestions from the Leaders in Sport confer- anywhere in his new ence. “The London World crusade of keeping the Championships was fabu- sport “relevant” to the lous but is it sensible that it next generation. “Over runs over 10 days anymore? the next year our Do we have fewer athletes? relentless focus on for- Do we concertina the World “ mats and the changes Championships to semis and These are the things that we make in the finals? “These are the things “ sport has to be that are on the table and I that are on the table absolutely laser-like,” don’t want to remove them he said. “Our season until we’ve had a possibly needs to make sense, uncomfortable set of con- we need a rhyme and versations. You’re going to reason to it. We really have to challenge a lot of the need a deep dive over orthodoxies.” Coe the next two years so addressed the conference that we really do on the subject of sports governance and said that he had understand what that sport can look like and set it on the way been forced to spend his first two years in office as IAAF for the next 30 years. “For example, why are we wedded to a President “securing the foundations” of an organisation shat- 400-metre track? Why can we not have pop-up 300m or tered by corruption issues that had dogged it for years and 200m tracks in football stadiums? “What about teams, cities, remain the subject of a French judicial investigation. He said franchises? What about having the excitement of the draft, that the IAAF is now an example for all sports in terms of the IPL (cricket’s Indian Premier League) auction? Those are IAAF head Sebastian Coe (centre) with officials. transparency and ethics and that now changes, which includ- the things that I really want to have on the table.— Reuters Superstar Bolt can inspire young, says Doping bans leave Sebastian Coe North Koreans set for glory in US LONDON: Jamaican track superstar Usain Federations chief Coe said it was difficult Bolt can play a key role in inspiring young- to see the enormous vacuum left by Bolt on sters to get involved in athletics even and off the track being filled immediately. NEW YORK: Weightlifting’s new hardline approach though he has hung up his running spikes, “Nobody will fill the boots straight away,” to doping has not only led to one-year bans for IAAF president Sebastian Coe said yes- he said. “This is not just simply about China, Russia and seven other nations, it has also terday. Bolt, the world record holder in someone who will dominate sprinting for opened the way for North Korea to register its the 100m and 200m, brought down the the next three Olympic Games. biggest sporting triumph in US President Donald curtain on his glittering career at the “It is maybe not being philosophically Trump’s backyard. London world championships in August. or politically correct but we are in the Tensions between the US and North Korea have Coe, himself a two-time Olympic gold entertainment business. “The athletes have escalated in recent months, with Trump vowing to medallist, said he was due to meet the 31- to have an opinion, they must be able to halt the country’s nuclear ambitions, but the North year-old Jamaican before Christmas to dominate a room and a stadium and some- Korean lifters will be welcomed. Despite Trump’s discuss what he could do. “I had conver- times I sit there at athletes’ press confer- travel ban against several nations, including North sations with the Jamaican prime minister ences and I wonder are you really offering when I went to watch Bolt run his final as much as you should? “I want to feel Korea and Iran, the World Championships organising race there,” Coe told reporters at the like I wasn’t expecting that response, they committee do not foresee any visa problems. Sport Business Summit, held at Chelsea’s have to be interesting, take the sport “We look forward to welcoming DPR Korea, one Stamford Bridge ground in London. beyond the stadium, they have to reach of the top teams in the sport, to Anaheim, “Jamaica’s challenges aren’t dissimilar to out.” Coe backed the right of American (California)” said Phil Andrews, chief executive of ours in figuring out all the inspirational sports stars to “take a knee” in protest Usain Bolt USA Weightlifting. North Korea have never topped things he can do in Jamaica and for us on during the playing of the US national the medals table at a world championship in any a global scale,” he said. anthem following a tirade against them major sport but excel at weightlifting. “At the moment it is difficult for me to from President Donald Trump. salute in the 1968 Games (involving 200m Coe with a trace of a smile, referring to In recent years it has become the most successful say what he can do beyond engagement “I believe in personal freedoms, always,” medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos). pressure put on him and his father by a sport for North Korea, who came second in the with young people. I don’t think I have ever said Coe. “You have to be. Sport is rarely a “Sport will always take a view, sometimes minister in Margaret Thatcher’s govern- weightlifting medal count at the London 2012 witnessed anyone in any sport apart from mirror image of society. Sport sets the makes one uncomfortable but we all have ment to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Olympics and fourth in Rio last year. They have also Muhammad Ali who has had that ability to trends. “For instance Jesse Owens in the an individual view. Moscow over the then Soviet Union inva- made the top four at the past three worlds. North engage with the young.” 1936 Olympics in Berlin (who exploded the “I have never felt under pressure from sion of Afghanistan-he declined and went Korea are huge favourites to win most medals at the International Association of Athletics myth of Aryan superiority) or the raised fist political leaders, not even 1979/80,” added on to win his first gold. — AFP International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships being staged by the U.S. from Nov. 27 to Dec. 5. There are 16 weight categories, eight each for men and women, in Anaheim and in seven of them a North Korean tops the revised world rank- ings, after banned countries are discounted. No oth- NBA players Marcus er nation has more than one lifter in first place. and Markieff Morris NINE BANNED China, which has been top of the World Championship or Olympic medals count 19 times in acquitted of assault the past 20 years, will have to stay at home this time along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, PHOENIX: A Phoenix jury acquitted NBA players Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Turkey. Marcus and Markieff Morris in their aggravated assault Those nine nations had three or more of the 49 trial Tuesday. The twin brothers were accused of help- weightlifting positive tests announced by the ing three other people beat 36-year-old Erik Hood in International Olympic Committee (IOC) when sam- January 2015 outside a high school basketball game in ples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games were Phoenix. re-tested, bringing a one-year ban from mid- At that time, the 28-year-old brothers played for the October. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gave Phoenix Suns. Marcus now plays for the Boston Celtics weightlifters pride of place when his nation’s 11 gold and Markieff is with the Washington Wizards. After the medallists from the 2014 Asian Games - staged in verdict was read in Maricopa County Superior Court, South Korea - had a victory parade on their return the Morris brothers said they were relieved and ready to Pyongyang. Four of the 11 were weightlifters and to get back to their teams. They have missed the start Kim was photographed with one on each arm, the of the NBA preseason because of the trial. 56kg world record holder and multiple champion Om Another defendant, Gerald Bowman, also was found Yun-chol, and 62kg winner Kim Un-Guk, both of not guilty on two counts of aggravated assault.