Richardson to warn of dangers of contaminated supplements
13 March 2001 - Lisbon, Portugal - IAAF Council following the recommendations of the Anti-Doping Commission, has decided to refer the case of Mihaela Melinte (ROM) to Arbitration. In the case of the British athlete Mark Richardson, Council was notified about the decision of the athlete to withdraw from the Arbitration process and accept the application of IAAF rules. Council also considered, but did not accept, a request for early reinstatement for Richardson presented by UK Athletics. Nevertheless, Council welcomed a proposal from UK Athletics for Richardson to carry out a series of educational activities, warning young athletes about the dangers of contaminated food supplements, and agreed that it would reconsider the reinstatement request at a later date.
In addition, Council expressed its dissatisfaction with earlier public announcements made by UK Athletics related to nandrolone analysis which were proved wrong once the investigation of Richardson's case had been finalised.
Council also heard a report from the IAAF Technical Committee, which included a number of technical rule change proposals. These will be presented to the IAAF Congress in August for consideration. One rule change suggestion is that an athlete in events under 400m in length shall be disqualified for making one false start, rather than two. It is also proposed that in vertical jumps, athletes shall exit a competition after two consecutive failures at a height rather than three; that in the Pole Vault, the pole vault pegs be reduced from 75mm to 55mm; and that the take-over zone in relays should be, in total, 30 rather than 20 metres long.
It was agreed that some of these rule changes will be tested at IAAF Grand Prix II events prior to the Edmonton Congress.
Finally, Council agreed that the Decathlon would be introduced as a new event for women, although the Heptathlon would be retained as the official Championship event, and also decided to maintain the 200m at the World Indoor Championships.
