Athletics: McColgan angered by IAAF
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Your support makes all the difference.LIZ McCOLGAN yesterday gave an indication of the sort of resistance the International Amateur Athletic Federation will meet following their latest attempt to control athletes and their agents.
Faced with the threat of a boycott at this summer's world championships unless prize-money is instituted in Stuttgart, the IAAF council announced at its weekend meeting in Jakarta that athletes who failed to compete in recognised events would not be eligible to take part in either the Olympic Games or the lucrative grand prix final.
Those events included European, African and Asian championships, the World Cup and the world championships themselves.
The council also announced that they did not recognise the body which has been voicing athletes' displeasure over the arrangements for Stuttgart, the International Association of Athletes' Representatives. They have ruled in favour of contracts between national federations and individual agents, on an annually renewable basis, which will ensure participation in recognised events.
'I am the only one who decides where I run,' said McColgan, who is back in Britain briefly from Florida where she does much of her training.
Kim McDonald, a member of the IAAR who manages McColgan, said: 'This move by the IAAF cannot and will not succeed. My only responsibility is to the athletes.'
McColgan, who does not want prize-money at the world championships or the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, gave full support to McDonald. 'I agree wholeheartedly. No agent or manager can tie an athlete down to competing in a whole series of major meetings. Managers and agents are there to organise your travel and accommodation not your actual racing programme.'
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