IAAF accepts 'extreme gravity' of offenses in WADA corruption report

Published Jan. 16, 2016 1:19 p.m. ET

foxsports

MONACO -- The IAAF has accepted the "extreme gravity" of the offenses revealed in an investigation of its past corruption and says it will use the recommendations in the World Anti-Doping Agency report as the basis for reform of track and field's international governing body.

The WADA report found that the IAAF was corrupted from the inside by a "powerful rogue group," and they conspired to extort athletes and allow doping Russians to continue competing.

Sebastian Coe, who replaced Lamine Diack as IAAF president last August, said that the track and field body "has an enormous task ahead of it to restore public confidence."

"The weakness of IAAF's governance, which has been exposed, allowed individuals at the head of the previous regime at the IAAF to delay the following of normal procedures in certain doping cases," the IAAF said in a statement.

Coe said the corruption revealed in the WADA report "is totally abhorrent, and a gross betrayal of trust by those involved."

He said many of the recommendations made by the WADA Independent Commission were already part of the reforms being put in place by the new administration "but we will now urgently consider all of the new recommendations and will incorporate them quickly into that reform program."