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 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 criticized 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 honors 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.
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"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.
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)
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