Doping Probe Chief: Issue Goes Beyond Russia

The man who exposed drug abuse in athletics says it would be "naïve" to think systematic doping is confined to Russia.

Dick Pound, who chaired the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation into athletics, told Sky News track and field is not the only sport with a major problem.

He also said the award of Olympic Games and track and field world championships should be investigated to establish if they had been corrupted.

Mr Pound's two reports into athletics revealed state-sponsored doping in Russia and corruption involving Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

But he said the scourge of doping was likely to extend far more widely.

"It would be naive to think that Russia is the only country with a doping problem and athletics is the only sport with a doping problem. That’s about all we can say but anyone who reads between the lines will get the message," he said.

Mr Pound's remit did not allow him to widen his investigation, but his comments will sound a warning to the sporting world as it prepared for an Olympic Games in Rio that may be overshadowed by questions of credibility.

His report also suggested the awarding of Olympic Games and world championships may have been tainted by the activities of the same cabal, including Diack's son Papa Massata Diack, that corrupted the IAAF, athletics' world governing body.

"We had witness statements from a number of mostly confidential informants saying this is going on, and we record that, but we didn’t have any definite proof," Mr Pound said.

"So we say to the IAAF, you should know about this and you should extend whatever forensic audit to that."

Mr Pound's colleague Richard Mclaren said that every world championship awarded since 2001, including London 2017, should be under scrutiny.

French prosecutors investigating Diack and his son have told Sky News they are examining potential links to both world championships and Olympic Games bidding processes.

Mr Pound's report includes a reference to testimony that Diack abandoned his support for Istanbul's 2020 Olympic bid after Turkey declined to sponsor IAAF events, but that Japan did pay.

Tokyo, which is hosting the 2020 Games, said it did not understand the reference. "Tokyo’s bid was about Japan’s commitment to address issues around the integrity of sport," a spokesman said.

The chairman of UK Athletics has insisted London has nothing to hide over its successful bid for the 2017 world championships and has promised to provide all emails, documents and phone records to investigators.

Ed Warner told Press Association Sport: "All I know is that London's bid was completely by the book and through the front door in a classically British way.

"We have nothing to hide and we would be delighted to spend any amount of time going through our processes with the investigators if that helps root out any miscreants.''

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had requested a copy of the transcript so it could investigate the claim.

Mr Pound said that he hopes his report will prompt other sports to reform before they face a similar crisis to athletics.

"What we hope the message coming out is if this can happen to athletics, then this can happen to us, and we should get ahead of this before a scandal and get good governance in place," he said.