Great Britain’s athletics captain, Martyn Rooney, has raised doubts over whether Sebastian Coe was aware of the serious issues at the International Association of Athletics Federations and said he believes Lord Coe’s initial comments about the Russian doping scandal were “naive”.
The IAAF is due to decide on Friday whether to ban Russia in the aftermath of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s report which accused the country of “state-sponsored doping”.
Coe succeeded Lamine Diack as president of the governing body after winning an election in August but spent eight years working under the Senegalese, who is currently under investigation for allegedly taking payments for deferring sanctions against Russian athletes who had failed drug tests.
“It is pretty disrespectful to believe the vice-president did not know what was going on within the IAAF,” Rooney told the BBC. “That is his job and if he believes he did not know what was going on he has not been doing his job properly.
“Lord Coe is an icon for British athletes and has inspired generations but I felt he was a bit naive with his comments post the report,” added the 400m runner.
“I want to believe he is the right person for the job. I feel he is strong and smart enough to be that person, it is just whether it is the best thing for athletics to have someone who was involved in the IAAF at that period still involved at the turnaround.”
