Aug 21, 2006, 15:25 GMT
Beijing - The latest positive doping tests involving leading US sprinters Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin have only made the ruling body IAAF more determined to call for harsher sanctions for cheaters.
'The news of the positive A-sample has reached us and we have discussed it,' said German IAAF vice-president Helmut Digel after the first day of IAAF Council meetings in Beijing on Monday.
It was revealed Saturday that the three-time 2000 Olympic champion Jones tested positive for the blood doping substance EPO at the national championships in July. The b-sample is yet to be examined.
The world and Olympic 100m champion Gatlin tested positive for the steroid testosterone in April, but the test result was not announced until late July. He equalled the 100m world record of 9.77 seconds and ran at the national championships after the positive test.
IAAF president Lamine Diack reiterated Monday that the IAAF is in favour of returning to a four-year ban for first-time offenders instead of two as a bigger deterrence.
A two-year ban is listed in the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), but the IAAF is expected to press for a change via a planned WADA code revision during a Madrid seminar in 2007.
A meeting between the IAAF, WADA and the Olympic summer sports federations is set for later this year as well.
The IAAF said Monday that the US athletics body USATF is finally willing to inform the IAAF of positive tests of its athletes after the examination of the A-sample as laid out in the IAAF rules.
The USATF has in the past announced various doping offences after the B-test or even after all proceedings in connection with positive tests were completed. The IAAF said it learnt of Gatlin's test result via the media and not USATF.
USATF is reportedly also willing to establish rules that will allow it remove problem coaches and others from the sport. Gatlin's coach Trevor Graham for instance has seen several of his athletes serve doping bans and has been banned from all US Olympic training sites.
The IAAF said Monday that it has so far conducted 2,083 competition and out-of-competition doping tests this year, of those 1,531 urine tests and 552 blood tests.
Sixteen athletes were caught doping and the IAAF also said that 22 athletes had missed tests, with three missed tests treated in the same way as a positive test.
The IAAF also welcomed Montenegro as its 212th member after the recent political split with Serbia.
The 2007 competition calendar was approved by the IAAF Council, with the Golden League dates set for June 15 (Oslo), July 6 (Paris), July 13 (Rome), September 7 (Zurich), September 14 (Brussels), September 16 (Berlin), and the season-ending World Athletics Final in Stuttgart September 22-23, 2007.
The Council meetings came after the world junior championships in the Chinese capital which will host the 2008 Olympics.
'From our arrival at the airport, until the closing ceremony last night, our sport has been treated impeccably, and we are now certain that the organization of the athletics events at the 2008 Games will be of an excellent standard,' said Diack.
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