Cash to hide positive doping tests – the corruption claims rocking athletics

Russian athletics chiefs and the sons of the former world body president Lamine Diack blackmailed athletes suspected of doping to let them keep competing, according to a secret World Anti-Doping Agency inquiry quoted by the Mediapart news website on Thursday.

Mediapart said it had seen a report by a Wada independent commission which is due to be made public next Monday.

French police on Tuesday charged former International Association of Athletics Federations president Diack with corruption over suspicions he took bribes for covering up doping cases.

Mediapart said six Russian athletes, including top marathon runner Lilya Shobukhova, were the targets of blackmail attempts by Russian athletics federation officials.

It quoted the Wada report as saying Shobukhova, who had her ban reduced after giving evidence to IAAF investigators, handed over $569,000 between 2012 and 2014 to a Russian coach Alexey Melnikov, who acted as an intermediary.

The report added that Diack’s two sons, Pape Massata Diack and Khalil Diack, were alleged to have asked for $500,000 from Turkey’s 1500m women’s Olympic champion Asli Cakir Alptekin in November 2012, but she refused.