Doha (AFP)

President of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) Sebastian Coe supported sprinter Christian Coleman on Thursday, recently pinned for three breaches of his anti-doping localization obligations, declaring a victory for the American in the 100m race. Worlds, Saturday in Doha, would be "good" for the discipline.

Asked if a possible Coleman (23) would be a good thing for athletics, Coe said yes.

"Yes, it would be good for the sport if Christian Coleman won the 100m, but it will be a very close race," he said at a joint press conference with the organizing committee of the Championships of the world, on the eve of the opening of the competition in Qatar.

Coe took the opportunity to defend the principle of locating athletes in the fight against doping.

"I want to be clear about this, there are a number of things we need to be strongly committed to, the tracking system is a very important part of the ecosystem, and every athlete understands it seriously. alert them (...) but we must also protect the reputation of the athletes very seriously, "he said.

Threatened with a penalty for three failures to locate doping controls, Coleman was cleared by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada). The American, vice-world champion (2017) and the fastest man on the planet since the retirement of Usain Bolt, benefited from an error made by Usada in the registration date of the first of his three shortcomings.

The US court initially reported that Coleman breached the location rules on June 6, 2018, when it found it.

But the date was finally advanced to April 1, 2018, at the beginning of the quarter, when the athlete transmits her whereabouts information, as required by the regulation. The other two Coleman failures that took place in January and April 2019, the one-year delay was exceeded for a few days and he could not be punished.

© 2019 AFP