World athletics governing body IAAF in Osaka Thursday said that
first-time drug cheats will face a mandatory four-year ban.
The IAAF initially imposed four-year bans on doping cheats in
1991 but they were forced to turn back their tough stance for legal
challenges in 1997.
The IAAF Congress agreed that the IAAF should push for this
change, to apply for serious first-time offenders, at the World
Anti-Doping Conference in November in Madrid, where the World
Anti-Doping Code is under revision.
"We remain convinced that strong penalties are an important
cornerstone of an effective anti-doping campaign in general, and in
athletics in particular," the IAAF congress said in a
statement.
"We unanimously reiterate in the strongest possible terms the
position adopted at the 2005 Congress regarding four-year penalties
for first-time serious doping infractions."
Lamine Diack, president of the IAAF, was confident that the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will stand behind the IAAF and get
tough on doping.
"We hope that WADA adopts stronger measures. We hope to define
the circumstances and substances by November," Diack said after the
conference.
Even if WADA failed to do so, Diack said that the IAAF had the
right to extend the ban to four years from the current two. He
added that doping offenders will also be forced to hand back prize
money they have won.
WADA, which was set up in 1999, also ruled that two-year bans
are imposed on first-timers.
(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)