World Athletics has hit out at the election of convicted drugs cheat Ivan Tsikhan as the new President of the Belarus Athletic Federation (BFLA).
The 44-year-old replaced another hammer thrower, Vadim Devyatovskiy, who himself had been suspended from athletics for doping.
Tsikhan was stripped of the Olympic silver medal he had won at Athens 2004 after a re-test of his sample in 2012 from those Games showed traces of banned anabolic steroids.
According to World Athletics spokeswoman, “however, no one who has served a doping ban would be able to hold an official position on World Athletics bodies or structures today.”
“Member Federations conduct their elections in line with their own constitutions and their own Congresses as we understand was done in this case.”
