UK Athletics manifesto: Trust in athletics at its 'lowest point in decades'

UK Sport-funded athletes should have a record of all their drugs tests available on a public database, says UK Athletics (UKA), which has made the recommendation as part of a wide-ranging manifesto on how to clean up the sport.

The governing body for the sport unveiled the document, titled A Manifesto for Clean Athletics, which laid out 14 proposals to “restore the trust of the sport” following a number of drug allegations made about elite athletes and state-sponsored doping in Russia exposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) last November.

“The integrity of athletics was challenged as never before in 2015,” said UKA chair Ed Warner. “Clean athletes and sports fans the world over have been let down. Trust in the sport is at its lowest point in decades.”

As well as the athletes register, UKA revealed its intention to seek lifetime bans against any athlete representing Great Britain for athletes guilty of anti-doping violations.

The manifesto called for Wada and UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) to publish any missed tests, and to increase the pool of athletes and out-of-competition testing. Wada should also maintain a global register of all drugs tests, so that times and places are open to scrutiny.

UKA used the manifesto to challenge the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) to make it the responsibility of member federations to reimburse prize money lost by athletes affected by a banned or annulled result, with suspension hanging over federations which failed to honour the responsibility.

The IAAF should additionally insist that all athletes competing in world championships have a valid blood/biological passport and have been “subject to a predetermined number of in-competition and out-of-competition tests” in the 12-months preceding the event.

Warner added: “UKA believes the time has come for radical reform if we are to help restore trust in the sport. Athletics needs to act very differently if we are to move on from the crisis facing the sport.”

Last week, the IAAF published its own reform vision, which included a doubled anti-doping budget and a new “integrity unit”.