Sports
Athletics: ‘Drugs Cheats Will Be Caught’
Drugs cheats at this summer’s World Athletics Championships “will be found out”, says the head of a new unit set up to protect integrity in the sport.
David Howman, who chairs the Athletics Integrity Unit, said he could not guarantee August’s event in London would be completely clean.
But he told Tidesports source he would “ensure the best possible anti-doping programme is in place”.
Howman is also urging athletes to talk to the unit about their concerns.
Several British athletes face losing their world records after European Athletics announced it wants historical records rewritten because of the doping scandal.
Paula Radcliffe, Jonathan Edwards and Colin Jackson are among those whose records are under threat.
The International Olympic Committee has also embarked on a programme of retesting old samples , leading to the disqualification of more than 100 athletes from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
That has led to retrospective medals for Britain’s Goldie Sayers, Martyn Rooney and Kelly Sotherton.
Howman, a former director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, acknowledged emotions are running high in the sport.
“We’re going to be talking with all those athletes who are angry – we’ve started that programme already,” he said.
“What we are doing in terms of our task is to ensure that the athlete voice is heard and those who do want to come forward to talk to us about any aspect can do that. The first opportunity to do that will be in London.”
The World Championships will take place from 4-13 August.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.
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