Paula Radcliffe and Jonathan Edwards slam ‘cowardly’ suits urged to scrap all world records before 2005
Edwards said he thought his 1995 triple-jump record would go one day but 'not to a bunch of sports administrators'
JONATHAN EDWARDS admits he thought his triple-jump world record would go one day - but not to a bunch of sports blazers.
Edwards has joined Paula Radcliffe in branding moves to strip them of their world records as "cowardly" after athletics chiefs were urged to scrap ALL marks set before 2005 - even without evidence of track and field stars having doped.
European Athletics announced on Monday that it planned to overhaul the record lists. That would require any athlete who now sets a record to have been drug-tested on numerous occasions in the months beforehand, and for their sample to be available for retesting for 10 years.
World marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe has already reacted furiously to the news with the sport's governing body the IAAF - led by Seb Coe - also being urged to accept the radical proposal.
Radcliffe is vice-chair of the IAAF athlete's commission but the move would also see her world record of 2:15.25 which she set in 2003 and still stands wiped from the record books.
Edwards, whose triple-jump mark of 18.29m was set in Gothenburg in 1995 and has never been bettered, said: "I thought my record would go one day but not just to a bunch of sports administrators.
“It's patently a ridiculous idea. I wish they had the courage of their convictions. If there are records that are unbelievable and suspicious, go for those. It seems It seems incredibly wrong-headed and cowardly. And I don’t think it achieves what they want it to. Instead it cast doubts on generations of athletics performances."
Ironically at a reception last Wednesday to mark 100 days to go before the World Championships in London this summer Edwards' record was announced as one of the top four iconic moments in the history of the event - with European athletics chiefs who came up with this plan watching on
Olympic middle distance star Steve Cram, still the European and British record holder for the men's mile and whose then world mark of 3:46.32 was set in Oslo in 1985 and would be wiped, said: "It's farcical. This to me smacks of an cop-out, a PR exercise. It's throwing the baby out with the bath water."
Cram, who has made his feelings known privately to the European athletics chiefs said: "It's also confusing to the general public. We would have to wipe national records as well. You can't have a British record that is faster than a European or world record! It's not our fault the sport didn't police itself properly. It's not going to stop people cheating so what do we do, keep wiping records every five years!"
Mike Powell’s long jump world record of 8.95m, set in 1991, and Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1500m time of 3:26.00c, set seven years later, could also be under threat along with Colin Jackson’s indoor 60m hurdles world record of 7.30sec set in 1994. There is no suggestion that any of these athletes doped.
Jackson said: "My message to Seb Coe would be think very carefully about what you are trying to achieve. These are the mile-stones of athletics history and they are trying to rob memories and cast doubt on everyone. We all understand the situation with doping but it's not the fault of clean athletes and I've always said that drug cheats should be banned for life."
Radcliffe added yesterday: "I understand what they are trying to do but this is not the answer. Yet again it sees clean athletes suffering for the actions of cheats. Jonathan, Colin, Steve Cram and myself can't run those records again!.
"It's hard to be told told we don't value your record, we don't believe in you, especially in 2003 and also in 1995 for Jonathan we had more pre-competition testing than is in place in some countries NOW.
"In 2003 samples were stored but only for eight years not 10 but I actually wrote a letter asking for mine to be kept.
On Monday after first hearing the news Radcliffe also questioned whether records set recently could be trusted any more than those of 20 years ago.
She said: "Although we are moving forward I don’t believe we are yet at the point where we have a testing procedure capable of catching every cheat out there, so why reset at this point? Do we really believe a record set in 2015 is totally clean and one in 1995 not?
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“I am hurt and do feel this damages my reputation and dignity. It is a heavy-handed way to wipe out some really suspicious records in a cowardly way by simply sweeping all aside instead of having the guts to take the legal plunge and wipe any record that would be found in a court of law to have been illegally assisted.”
Decathlon legend Daley Thompson said: "It is a shame that Paula Radcliffe and Jonathan Edwards are being lumped in with the cheats. A big step in the right direction would be making it a criminal offence to cheat with drugs."
The IAAF has stored blood and urine samples under a biological passport system since 2005 although these can only be kept for up to 10 years. Records that have long been seen as dubious, such as Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m and 200m world records and numerous world bests set by eastern bloc athletes during the Cold War when state-sponsored doping was rife and there was no out-of-competition testing, would be wiped.
Pierce O’Callaghan, who led the European Athletics project team, said he was confident the plan would survive legal challenges.
He said: “We are not casting doubt on the previous records at all, just saying the criteria have changed."
The plan is also strongly backed by Coe and the IAAF could even approve the proposal at their next council meeting in July with the move coming into effect within the next 12 months.
IAAF chief and London 2012 supremo Coe, whose own 1000m European record set in 1981 would be wiped under the plan, said: "I like this because it underlines that we have put into place doping control systems that are more robust and safer than 15 or even 10 years ago.
“There will be athletes, current record holders, who will feel that the history we are recalibrating will take something away from them but I think this is a step in the right direction and, if organised and structured properly, we have a good chance of winning back credibility in this era.”
Usain Bolt’s 100m and 200m records, David Rudisha’s 800m best and Wayde van Niekerk’s 400m are likely to remain on the books as they were set more recently – providing they meet the new rules.