IAAF president Coe cleared of misleading British lawmakers

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 2:08 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) — IAAF President Sebastian Coe has been cleared of misleading British lawmakers about his knowledge of a Russian doping scandal.

The IAAF's ethics board says it closed the investigation because no evidence showed "any realistic prospect that any disciplinary case could be established."

The case centered on how much Coe knew in 2014 when an athletics official emailed him about a formal complaint filed by marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova.

Shobukhova was extorted by IAAF and Russian athletics officials to cover up her doping.

A British parliamentary panel that questioned Coe reported last year "it stretches credibility" he was unaware of the detailed allegations.

Coe's claim his personal assistant read out his email and forwarded it to IAAF investigators without him seeing attached details was supported by the track body's independent inquiry.