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UK Athletics wants a Year Zero for world records

UK Athletics has called for a lifetime ban for any athlete who is found guilty of a serious dopin...



UK Athletics wants a Year Zero...
Golf

UK Athletics wants a Year Zero for world records

UK Athletics has called for a lifetime ban for any athlete who is found guilty of a serious doping offence.

It is part of what the governing body in the UK is calling "a manifesto for clean athletics".

There is also a call for a new set of world records to be introduced based on the "clean athletics" era.

UK Athletics set out their proposals in a set of bullet points:

• WADA should maintain a public global register of all drugs tests so that the times and places of tests undertaken by all athletes are open to scrutiny.
• If the above is not introduced swiftly by WADA, UK Sport should mandate all lottery-funded athletes in Great Britain to have their tests available on a public register maintained by UKAD. Non lottery-funded athletes in the UK should be invited to join the register.
• A call to WADA and UKAD to investigate the implications of publishing a register of missed tests. Also to review the efficacy of the current ‘three strikes’ system with a view to lengthening the measurement period to 18 months or two years
• The pool of athletes subject to testing, both in the UK and worldwide, should be deepened. Also, there should be an increase in out-of-competition testing for all athletes.
• WADA should review and strengthen the process around the granting of Therapeutic Use Exemptions to athletes.
• The IAAF should insist that all athletes competing in world championships have a valid blood/biological passport and have been subject to a predetermined number of in-competition and out-of-competition tests in the twelve months preceding the competition. This should be in place for at least the top 10 leading athletics nations by the 2017 World Championships. Once established this blood/biological passport should become an athlete prerequisite for all major international competitions.
• The IAAF should make it the responsibility of member federations to reimburse any lost prize monies to affected athletes resulting from a ban and annulment of results. If a member federation does not honour this responsibility, it can be suspended from participating in major championships.
• A call to the IAAF to investigate the implications of drawing a line under all pre-existing sport records – for example, by adjusting event rules – and commencing a new set of records based on performances in the new Clean Athletics era.
• A call to all companies who engage in sports sponsorship not to support any athlete found guilty of a serious doping offence as a matter of principle in support of Clean Athletics. In addition we call for the IAAF to ring-fence a percentage of each of its commercial sponsorships to be used toward the funding and support of Clean Athletics.
• Governments should commit to ensuring that their national anti-doping agencies are truly independent, ideally by handing over their management directly to WADA.
• Bans should be extended to a minimum of eight years for serious doping offences to ensure that cheating athletes miss two Olympic or Paralympic cycles. Lifetime bans should also be applied in appropriate cases.
• The supply or procurement of performance enhancing drugs should be criminalised and those in positions of authority who are found to be involved in such practices should be banned for life from any involvement in sport.
• Anti-doping agencies should be renamed Clean Sport, or their equivalent in local language – for example Clean Sport UK – to emphasise the ultimate purpose of their activities.

• Finally, UK Athletics commits to exploring how to best legally implement a rule that will result in athletes who commit a serious anti-doping violation receiving a lifetime ban from representing Great Britain.

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