³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Zero tolerance

The British Olympic Association state that anyone with a drug history can't compete in the Olympic games. I believe that's how it should be. This puts UK athletics in a position whereby they now have to review their procedures. Is two years a long enough ban? Should it be four years? Should it be a life ban?

I welcome the fact that Tanni Grey-Thompson is chairing a review group to look at the issue of drug taking in athletics in order to produce recommendations for UK athletics. The governing body of the sport has a responsibility to young athletes, the coaches, the clubs and to the officials to make absolutely sure that it's a sport which is seen as being clean. A sport which is all about honest endeavour, commitment and training.

How do our young athletes feel when they compete alongside somebody who has cheated by taking drugs? The role of the governing body is to ensure that this, ideally, will never happen again.

Fair play

The role of a governing body of a sport is to govern that sport. That includes not just the developing of coaches, athletes, officials and raising money for the sport, but to ensure that there's fairness, no cheating and a level playing field for our young athletes to take part in. They have to feel comfortable that the rules of the sport are being followed by athletes around them so they don't feel at a disadvantage or of the belief that other people may be cheating.

I'm not sure that other countries are as vigilant as we are in terms of testing so it's a challenge, but it's something we have to grasp and deal with as a governing body. It's a very competitive world and there are a lot of temptations.

Paying the price

Under the rules in 2008, Dwaine Chambers served his time. He served a two year ban and that then made him eligible to compete, as he did, in Sheffield at the National Championships. Having won it and achieved the qualifying time, he then became eligible for automatic selection for the World Indoor Championships. However, he wasn't picked. This is all about the promoters selecting who they want to have in the competition and it appears they didn't want a person who had a history of drugs to compete in the championship.

If more people in the sport make it difficult for athletes to succumb to drug taking then try and come back, it'll make it impossible for them to do so. That's the challenge we face.

Perceptions

It's all about role models. We've got a lot of sports now which are attracting young people. Athletics has to be sure that it's an attractive enough sport to attract young people to it.

Our aim is to get people into athletics and other, more attractive, sports are taking them away. The very last thing we want is people walking away from our sport because it's perceived as a sport that's reliant on drug taking to be successful. This perception is what we have to break down - if you cheat you'll never be allowed back into the sport again and you're letting yourself down.