The International Athletics Association World Athletics will not correct anything in its decision to pause the Olympic qualification until November 31. In their response to the Swedish Athletic Association, three additional arguments are pressed which form the basis of the decision - the justice aspect and the possibility of doping tests are two of them.
- Much depends on wanting to do it as fairly as possible from a global and international perspective, says the Swedish Athletics Association's General Secretary Stefan Olsson to SVT Sport.
- Another important part is that it seems that the anti-doping work around the world is paused right now when it comes to out of competition tests. Healthcare and other things may put more force on this corona situation that is.
World Atheltics also refers a lot to the contact they had with the active committee, which emphasizes that many people are unable to train at the moment.
"Arguments we understand"- To compete at a high level already this summer without having a good preparation time also has its risks from an injury perspective. That you want to stress results too soon, says Olsson.
Are you satisfied with the answer?
- We must relate to the answer and respect that World Athletics is responsible for an extremely global sport. We sent our input and now we have got answers, we must relate to that.
The Athletics Association sent the protest letter to World Athletics just over two weeks ago and Olsson is pleased with the quick response.
- I think that World Athletivs has handled it well. We received an urgent response that was serious and with arguments that we can understand in this situation.
Will you go further and answer World Atheltics?
- We have only replied that we received the answer, but have not decided whether we will answer further. Personally, I think we got our views so now we like the situation.