LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Athletics lurched deeper into
crisis on Friday with the showcase sport of the Olympics
scrapping its year-end gala after French officials began
investigating the ruling body's former president for corruption.
Elsewhere, track and field glamour nation Kenya was warned
that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was serious about a
possible four-year ban unless athletics officials stepped up
anti-doping efforts.
A double Olympic champion also criticised the inaction of
new IAAF president Sebastian Coe and suggested the sport's
doping scandal was at least as damaging as the ongoing
corruption probe into soccer's world governing body FIFA or the
Lance Armstrong cycling controversy.
In addition, the IAAF governing body announced it had
charged four sports officials with ethics violations for
allegedly concealing the doping results of a Russian athlete.
The quartet are former IAAF consultant Papa Massata Diack,
the son of ex-president Lamine, former All-Russia Athletic
Federation president Valentin Balakhnichev, former Russian
long-distance coach Alexei Melnikov and former director of the
IAAF's Anti-Doping Department Gabriel Dolle.
The announcement could not save the governing body's
year-end gala in Monaco, with officials on Friday cancelling the
Nov. 28 black-tie event in Monaco, which honours the year's best
athletes, because of the sport's doping scandal.
"Given the cloud that hangs over our association this is
clearly not the time for the global athletics family to be
gathering in celebration," Coe said in a statement.
French authorities announced earlier this week that they had
placed former IAAF president Lamine Diack under formal
investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.
The 82-year-old Senegalese was questioned by the office of
France's financial prosecutor for allegedly receiving over one
million euros ($1.09 million) in bribes in 2011 to cover up
positive doping tests by Russian athletes.
Diack's family has dismissed what they called the "excessive
and insignificant accusations".
THOMPSON REBUKE
He served as president from 1999 until August this year when
he was succeeded by Briton Coe who ran on a platform to reform
athletics and improve its integrity.
Days before he was elected, Coe had to deal with allegations
that athletes had been escaping censure despite having abnormal
blood levels.
Coe said at the time the allegations were "a declaration of
war on my sport" but he has been silent on the latest scandal,
prompting a stinging rebuke from former British team mate Daley
Thompson.
"I don't think anything much worse could happen to the sport
than for the former president to have colluded with the Russian
Federation over doping tests," the 1980 and 1984 Olympic
decathlon champion told Talksport radio.
"This to my mind is a 10 or 11 on the Lance Armstrong scale.
This is much worse that what Sepp Blatter has been doing.
"This has not happened on Seb Coe's watch but he needs to
have a root and branch reform ... maybe he needs to make a stand
and say what he's going to do about it."
A leading Kenyan sports administrator added his voice to the
perceived inaction in combating the doping problem with a
warning that unless his country improved their anti-doping
efforts they faced expulsion from competition, including next
year's Rio Olympics.
Dozens of Kenyan runners have been caught doping in the past
few years, tarnishing the reputation of the east African nation
famed for its middle and long-distance runners. ID:nL5N10I37E
WADA and other officials have voiced frustration over the
years that Athletics Kenya (AK) has not cracked down on doping
despite frequent promises that it would.
"It is no longer just a threat," chairman of the National
Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) Kipchoge Keino told reporters
in Nairobi after returning from the United States where he met
WADA officials.
"They think Kenya is sweeping doping issues under the
carpet. The ADAK (Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya), Athletics Kenya
and Government must meet immediately to confront this issue or
else we are in big trouble. Things are that bad."
(Writing by Greg Stutchbury, additional reporting by Mitch
Phillips, Gene Cherry, Drazen Jorgic, editing by Tony Jimenez)