NEW YORK: USA Track & Field (USATF) yesterday released a detailed breakdown of how it spends its money in response to an allegation made by runner Nick Symmonds that the body spends a tiny proportion of its income on athlete support.
Symmonds, who won the 800 metres at the US trials, was excluded from the US team for this month’s world championships in Beijing after refusing to agree to conditions required of team members and said yesterday he was considering legal action.
Symmonds said he is meeting a lawyer on Wednesday to “discuss my options,” after taking special exception to USTAF rules governing the wearing of team sponsor Nike’s apparel.
On Monday, Symmonds cited what he said was an analysis by an economist that showed that eight percent of expected USATF gross revenue in 2015 would be distributed to athletes.
USATF said it spends about half its budget on athlete support and released a detailed breakdown.
“USATF in 2015 anticipates that we will spend roughly 50 percent of our $30 million budget, or more than $15 million, on a combination of cash paid directly to athletes, USATF payment of athlete costs and High Performance Programs that support elite athletes,” the body said in a statement.
“All revenues and expenditures are accounted for and reported.”
Symmonds, who finished second at the 2013 worlds and fifth at the 2012 Olympics, balked at signing USATF’s statement of conditions that requires athletes to wear Nike to official functions, claiming the terms are too vague and restrictive.
Symmonds, who is sponsored by rival company Brooks, said he hopes his legal consultation will shed light on what recourse, if any, he has against USATF.
“I currently do not know what my options are,” he said in an email yesterday. “I am hoping that my meeting with the lawyer can shed some light on where I can go from here.”
Symmonds also dismissed USATF’s financial breakdown.
“Statement says 2015 budget is $30 million. Is USATF’s budget somehow shrinking after new $500million dollar deal with @Nike?” he tweeted.
Kenyan great Keino says doping cases taking too long
NAIROBI: Kenya’s athletics great Kipchoge Keino says the IAAF should act more quickly on doping cases as the sport’s governing body begins disciplinary action against 28 athletes who took part in the 2005 and 2007 world championships.
With the world championships nine days away in Beijing, track and field is gripped by another doping saga after the International Association of Athletics Federations on Tuesday said 32 adverse doping cases had come to light after the re-analysis of samples from nearly a decade ago.
The re-testing took advantage of new technology and the 10-year period now offered under IAAF rules and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.
None of the 28, the majority of whom are retired according to the IAAF, were named.
“Why should WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and IAAF sanction athletes for doping issues taken in 2005 and 2007 now?,” Keino, Kenya National Olympic Committee president and winner of Olympic gold in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, said.
“Surely, can’t a way be found where decisions are taken immediately after tests are done as was the case with (Canadian) Ben Johnson in 1988 (Olympics)?” Keino, also an honorary member of International Olympic Committee (IOC), added.
Kenya boasts some of the world’s best middle and long distance runners but over the past few years claims of widespread doping have surfaced.
Data from thousands of blood tests performed between 2001-12 came to the attention of the Sunday Times newspaper and German broadcaster ARD this month, leading to accusations that the IAAF had failed to act on hundreds of suspicious results, many involving Olympic medallists.
Athletics Kenya has dismissed the latest allegations as a smear campaign.
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