'Russian roulette' drug tests

Athletics

Vicente Modahl has criticised the "sloppy and dangerous ways" in which he claims doping control stations are being run.

Modahl, husband and coach of the 800 metres runner Diane, reckons the current testing procedures are "Russian roulette for innocent athletes''.

In a letter to Professor Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the International Athletic Amateur Federation Doping Control Commission, he lists 10 ways in which testing regulations were not observed at a meeting held in Celje, Slovenia, on Sunday.

Modahl is sceptical about procedures after what happened to his wife. She was sent home from the Commonwealth Games in 1994 after it was revealed she had failed a drug test taken at a Lisbon meeting two months earlier. She was handed a four-year ban but was subsequently cleared by the British Athletic Federation and the IAAF.

Giorgio Reineri, the IAAF spokesman, said: "The IAAF is doing a lot of work and spending a lot of money on doping control but maybe testing in some countries is more difficult because there is less organisation.''