European athletics chief denies crisis

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Athletics is not in crisis despite the horrendous publicity following the exposure of state-sponsored doping by Russia, European Athletics Association president Svein-Arne Hansen told AFP on Monday.

The 70-year-old Norwegian added the Russians would be back at some point competing under their flag instead of the neutral one they are obliged to race under now.

Hansen admits the scandal —precipitating a blanket ban on Russia’s athletes at last year’s Rio Olympics save for those who met stringent criteria — which also implicated officials from the sport’s governing body the IAAF had left a lot of people feeling let down.