Hardliner Bubka hedges bets in IAAF race

Sergey Bubka has spread his chances in what promises to be a tight race for the IAAF presidency with Sebastian Coe, having also put himself forward in the contest to continue in his vice-president's role should he fail.

Coe, like Bubka also a vice president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, is standing solely for president, with incumbent Lamine Diack stepping down after 16 years in charge.

Bubka's gamble of a double nomination has split opinion: is it a clear sign that the Ukrainian fears he might lose against charismatic Coe? Or is it a clear reaffirmation that he is completely dedicated to track and field and will serve the sport no matter what?

Certainly, Bubka, who famously set the world pole vault record 35 times in his sparkling career, claims the latter, insisting that he wants to remain at the IAAF even if two-time 1500m Olympic champion Coe wins, with the final vote coming at a congress ahead of the August 22-30 World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

The Ukrainian, who won Olympic gold and six outdoor and four indoor world titles, is a hardliner when it comes to doping, a blight on athletics which has again resurfaced ahead of the worlds with allegations of abnormalities in IAAF blood testing results.

"Zero tolerance for doping," is Bubka's simple catchphrase, reiterated in his fluent English to a select group of media outlets including AFP in a recent visit to Paris.

- 'No excuse' -

Unlike Coe, Bubka wants the IAAF to continue working closely with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Briton keen to set up an independent body to monitor drugs controls.

"I can see being with WADA being the most successful because the governments can contribute financially and also offer scientific and medical expertise with government involvement, INTERPOL, we need that," he argued.

"There is no excuse (for doping). For me if you cheat you pay the price. It's finished. I don't want to see anyone who cheats come back, but legally can we do that? That is the issue."

Bubka, like Coe, has also placed much emphasis on galvanising the sport through attracting more youngsters, and has argued that so-called "street athletics", where track and field events are staged outside stadiums in street situations, was crucial to attract interest in and increase popularity.

Bubka added that the proximity of spectators, as opposed to massed ranks in tribunes far from the action, was "part of the success of athletes".

"Through my career when I competed, I achieved and won many events and I proved to myself I could do something. Later I started to compete for the spectators.

"It makes for an attractive event. It's sport and show together. We must engage in entertainment."

The 51-year-old Bubka, who has lost little of his rangey and powerful athletic figure, added that athletics could take a leaf out of tennis' book and perhaps start a ranking system in a bid to further raise interest by bringing together top stars on a more regular basis.

Agents currently vie with each other to snare the best deals from meet organisers, who often can only afford one headline sprinter for instance, meaning the likes of Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin rarely meet over the season.

"For every sport it's very attractive to have the stars, you want to see the best ones, we need them," he said

"We need to bring the stars to compete together as much as possible together. This improves performance and popularity and interest.

"In tennis they have a calendar and a commitment to where they go. In our case it's very complicated because there are so many competitions. this is one of the issues that needs to be discussed, but you always need stars and great heroes."
Source: AFP