The Latest: Pound says no one better than Coe to lead IAAF

The Latest: Pound says no one better than Coe to lead IAAF

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:43 p.m. ET

MUNICH (AP) The Latest from the IAAF investigation (all times local):

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4 p.m.

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency panel says there is no one better than Sebastian Coe to lead track's governing body.

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With Coe watching in the audience, Dick Pound says ''as far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain as head of the IAAF, I think it's a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize this opportunity and under strong leadership to move forward.''

Pound, a former WADA president, adds ''there's enormous amount of reputational recovery that has to occur here and I can't ... think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that. All our fingers are crossed in that respect.''

When asked if the IAAF remained an organization in denial, Pound says ''yes. Of course there was cover-up and delay and all sorts of things. Acknowledge this. If you can't acknowledge it you are never going to get past it.''

Coe replaced Lamine Diack as president of the IAAF in August.

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3:25 p.m.

The report on doping in Russia details a relationship between the IAAF's former president, Lamine Diack, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

With cases against nine Russian athletes unresolved and the 2013 world championships looming, the report says Diack explained to a lawyer that he is in a ''difficult position that could only be resolved by President Putin of Russia with whom he had struck up a friendship.''

The report says that eventually none of the nine athletes competed but none had their disciplinary cases followed up.

The nine athletes, four of whom have won Olympic gold medals, all eventually received doping bans, though some were not banned until as late as January 2015.

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3:00 p.m.

A World Anti-Doping Agency report says international track and field leaders should have been aware of the extent of doping in Russia.

The report says the IAAF governing council ''could not have been unaware of the level of nepotism that operated within the IAAF,'' and also ''could not have been unaware of the extent of doping.''

The report laid considerable blame at the feet of the IAAF Council, which included the now president, Sebastian Coe.

The report said that Russia had ''become a doping haven.''

The report says ''there was an evident lack of political appetite within the IAAF to confront Russia with the full and known extent of its known and suspected doping activities.''

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2:25 p.m.

The French arrest warrant for Papa Massata Diack - which has been transmitted as an international wanted alert via Interpol - means he could be arrested if he travels outside his home country of Senegal, especially to European Union countries with which France's legal authorities work closely.

In November, French prosecutor Eliane Houlette told The Associated Press that authorities had planned to arrest Papa Massata Diack at around the same time that they also took his father into custody, in a hotel room, in November.

''We didn't arrest Mr. Diack's son because he didn't come to Paris when he was meant to. But he is also implicated in this affair,'' she said. ''We haven't had the opportunity to arrest him in France. We would have done so if we could.''

The Interpol alert is based on a French arrest warrant that was issued for Papa Massata Diack in December.

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12:50 p.m.

France has issued an international wanted notice via Interpol for Papa Massata Diack, the son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack, saying he is wanted for corruption and money laundering.

The French request was lodged last month. The so-called Red Notice is posted on Interpol's website. That alerts Interpol's members that Diack is wanted in France.

The notice says the former IAAF marketing consultant is ''wanted by the judicial authorities of France for prosecution to serve a sentence.''

France's national financial prosecutor told The Associated Press last year that Papa Massata Diack is suspected of being actively involved in a bribery and blackmail scheme also allegedly involving his father when he presided over the governing body of track and field. The elder Diack was arrested in France last November and subsequently charged with corruption and money laundering. Also under criminal investigation in France are Diack's former legal counsel, Habib Cisse, and the IAAF's former director of anti-doping, Gabriel Dolle.

A World Anti-Doping Agency commission is to report a second volume of findings later Thursday on IAAF corruption in the handling of Russia's doping crisis.

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