Christine Ohuruogu attacks Lamine Diack over athletics ‘crisis’ remark

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/17/christine-ohuruogu-iaaf-lamine-diack-athletics-crisis

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Christine Ohuruogu, the world 400m champion, has expressed her exasperation with the IAAF president, Lamine Diack, for claiming athletics is in “crisis” – and likened his comments to “chopping off the arms and legs” of those involved in the sport.

“It’s very hard when people tell us: ‘You athletes are role models, go and inspire our kids to run’ and then you have people like that making those sort of comments,” she said. “It’s like you’ve just chopped off our arms and legs. What do you want us to do? It doesn’t matter how fast we run if our own federation is not backing us. It doesn’t make any difference.”

In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Diack, the 81-year-old head of athletics’ governing body, said allegations of systematic doping made against Russian athletes had provoked “a difficult crisis” but added: “We will put it behind us by cleaning all this.”

His comments came as the IAAF’s ethics commission continues its investigation into accusations of corruption made against Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, and Valentin Balakhnichev, the IAAF’s treasurer and president of the Russian athletics federation, by the German TV channel WDR in December last year. The Guardian has also reported that Papa Massata Diack asked for a $5m cash payment during the bidding process for the 2017 World Championships.

Ohuruogu believes that Diack, who has been om charge of the IAAF since 1999, has not done enough to tackle doping and corruption or promote the positive impact of the sport and its athletes.

“It’s really annoying when he says things like that because we’re on the floor doing the hard work so you wonder what the people at the top are doing,” she said. “We are all working really hard to put our sport in a positive light and then you have these guys at the top who are basically telling us they don’t know what’s happening.”

Ohuruogu is one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes, with three Olympic and world titles to her name – a figure matched by just Daley Thompson and Jonathan Edwards and bettered only by Mo Farah, who has five. Although she concedes that the sport “has lost its way a little bit” she believes Seb Coe, who will battle it out with Sergey Bubka for the IAAF presidency when Diack steps down in the summer, can turn things round.

“When people talk about the Olympics they talk about track and field,” she said. “It’s the one sport everybody wants to be at. Maybe track and field has lost its way a little bit but it’s a great sport and we have to work hard to bring it back to where it deserves to be.

“Seb did a fantastic job with London 2012 and all of us were so proud to have been there and been part of his dream,” she added. “With that in his armoury he will be in a really good position in helping to change things.”