Sports leaders call for international drugs summit

The Association of Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and IAAF president Dr Primo Nebiolo yesterday called for a world conference on the growing problem of doping in sport.

With the Tour de France reeling from drugs allegations which have led to one team being thrown out, Nebiolo said he backed an idea floated by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to call a conference to devise a strategy aimed at combatting the issue.

The IOC also said it was prepared to host such a conference.

"The problem of doping is a problem which affects the whole of the sports movement and which now needs to be resolved quickly and effectively after years of indecision and ineffectual actions," Nebiolo said in a statement.

"We cannot leave these matters to be resolved by the police and the courts. Police action and eventual imprisonment for offenders may be necessary, but only as a last resort.

"We are at a crossroads now and we cannot afford to take the wrong route. We have to act decisively, throw off the blinkers and attack the problem at the core."

He pointed out that five years ago the ASOIF and the IOC established a common policy on doping but noted that the federations governing some sports, including cycling, had not gone along with the idea, while promising to satisfy the policy requirements within two years to avoid exclusion from the Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee said it wanted to host a conference on drugs in sport next January in Lausanne.

In Madrid, the directors of Spain's leading two cycling teams yesterday welcomed Samaranch's call for the legalisation of some performance-enhancing drugs.

Eusebio Unzue, the Banesto team director, said: "I'm completely in agreement with Samaranch. I'm also pleased that he has chosen this time to speak out. It's very important because our sport needs to recapture its long-held good image. His comments are extremely important and we have to take advantage of them."

ONCE director Manolo Saiz said: "I think these were good words from Samaranch, to set us on a good course in professional sport."

British former middle distance world record holders Steve Ovett and Steve Cram condemned Samaranch's view.

Ovett said Samaranch wanted to "throw in the towel" in the fight against drugs. "How do you define dangerous?" he said. "Is it when someone keels over and dies?"

Cram said: "I totally disagree with the sentiments."

David Moorcroft, the head of British athletics, said: "As soon as we give in to the notion that anything goes then the concept of fair competition has no meaning."

In France, Reims magistrate Philippe Laumosne, charged with the TVM doping dossier, said yesterday that the riders on the Dutch team in the Tour de France were not suspected of doping.

"Contrary to what appeared to be the case at the start of the enquiry, the two cases are quite distinct," he said. "The TVM affair is much less significant.