PATSY MCGONAGLE has warned that athletics faces a ‘serious challenge’ to rid itself of doping scandals that have dragged the sport through the wringer.
McGonagle, who has managed the Irish Athletics Team to four Olympic Games, including at Rio in 2016, has also called on authorities to tighten up on doping issues he believes to be prevalent in team sports.
This week, sprint sensation Usain Bolt was stripped of one of his nine Olympic gold medals after his 4x100m relay team-mate Nesta Carter was found to have taken a banned substance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) released the findings on Wednesday after retests of 454 frozen blood and urine samples from the 2008 Games with Russian jumper Tatiana Lebedeva also disqualified.
In December, WADA said that more that 1,000 Russian athletes in over 30 sports had either been involved in or had benefited from state-sponsored doping between 2011 and 2015.
“Doping is in every sport,” McGonagle said.
“I think there is a serious problem in some team sports at a certain level and it hasn’t been exposed very well.
“We are in serious trouble in athletics and cycling was in very serious trouble. We have got to get ourselves out of it. We have a serious challenge on our hands.”
RUSADA, the Russian Athletics Federation, stands suspended by the IAAF and 27 Russia athletes have been punished after the re-analysis of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
The disqualification of Carter means that Bolt cannot lay claim to winning the ‘triple-treble’ of golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at three Olympic Games.
McGonagle said: “One of the things that helped to save our sport was Bolt. If we didn’t have Bolt and his personality and how he is perceived we would be in a dire situation.
“Lord Coe has got a hard time of it but, in fairness to him, he is trying to change the culture.
“Some countries, and everyone knows about them, are just very dirty countries and we have to do something about them before it’s too late.”
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