ATHLETICS’ world governing body the IAAF has been urged to accept a “radical” new proposal that would lead to the sport’s world records being rewritten.
European Athletics announced yesterday that its ruling Council had accepted a project team’s recommendations to overhaul the record lists by eliminating any doping doubts surrounding performances.
European Athletics said it would now forward them to the IAAF “with the recommendation that the two organisations coordinate the implementation of new record ratification rules”.
The new proposal “calls for higher technical standards, increased doping control measures and new personal integrity requirements for record holders”, the European governing body said.
European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen said: “Performance records that show the limits of human capabilities are one of the great strengths of our sport, but they are meaningless if people don’t really believe them.
“What we are proposing is revolutionary, not just because most world and European records will have to be replaced, but because we want to change the concept of a record and raise the standards for recognition to a point where everyone can be confident that everything is fair and above board.”
Under the new standards, a world record would only be recognised if it met three key criteria: it was achieved at a competition on a list of approved international events where the highest standards of officiating and technical equipment can be guaranteed; the athlete had been subject to an agreed number of doping control tests in the months leading up to it; and the doping control sample taken after the record was stored and available for re-testing for 10 years.
The project team also recommended that a performance be wiped from the record books if the athlete involved “commits a doping or integrity violation, even if it does not directly impact the record performance”.
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