Former Irish sprint hurdler Derval O'Rourke has expressed surprise at Athletics Ireland's public support for IAAF President Sebastian Coe.
Irish athletics' govering body released a statement this evening after part two of WADA's report into doping in the sport was made public today.
The report said the IAAF council “could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics” and that corruption was "embedded" within the organisation under former President Lamine Diack.
Coe served as Diack's vice-president but was backed by the chairman of the WADA report, Dick Pound, to oversee the reform of athletics.
His support was echoed by the CEO of Athletics Ireland John Foley who said, "Sebastian Coe is a strong character and now needs to show that strength of character and deliver radical reform for our sport."
O'Rourke, who is a multi-medal winner in indoor and outdoor hurdling, admitted recently that she almost came to hate the sport because of doping by rivals.
The Cork native took to Twitter to express her bemusement at the support shown for Coe today.
"I'm finding Dick Pounds comments that Seb Coe is the person to lead athletics utterly baffling considering today's report."
When informed of the same stance shown by Athletics Ireland she responded, "Also baffling.I'd prefer them to focus their attention on getting (Rob Heffernan) his well over due London Olympic medal."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm finding Dick Pounds comments that Seb Coe is the person to lead athletics utterly baffling considering today's report <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wada?src=hash">#wada</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/athletics?src=hash">#athletics</a></p>— Derval O'Rourke (@DervalORourke) <a href="https://twitter.com/DervalORourke/status/687704748229849089">January 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/KCsixtyseven">@KCsixtyseven</a> also baffling.I'd prefer them to focus their attention on getting <a href="https://twitter.com/RM_Heffernan">@RM_Heffernan</a> his well over due London Olympic medal.</p>— Derval O'Rourke (@DervalORourke) <a href="https://twitter.com/DervalORourke/status/687706016503431168">January 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
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