PARIS, 23 August 2003 — Iraqi athletes selected by an IOC team for the Olympics next year will be sent to training camps outside the country, it was revealed by IOC President Jacques Rogge here yesterday.
Rogge added that because of the continuing unrest within the country and with persistent attacks on the coalition forces following their successful unseating of President Saddam Hussein the building of the infrastructure would take longer than he had hoped.
“We are working very closely with the Asian sports authorities and in Iraq with US administrator Paul Bremer,” he said. “We have sent two teams out to Iraq, a fact finding one and the other one to discover potential athletes in the country who can compete at the Olympics.
“Those athletes selected will be sent to training camps abroad because, of course, there are no facilities there at the moment and the situation is still very insecure.”
Rogge said that while he had hoped for things to progress quicker he realized one had to be patient.
Meanwhile, organizers are to conduct some 400 doping test at the 9th World Athletics Championships that start in Paris today. The IAAF, said yesterday that among the tests — which will be conducted after training and competitions — 50 to 60 are for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) that increases the level of red blood cells in the body.
Jonathan Edwards Signals Changing of the Guard
British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards signaled a changing of the guard yesterday when he announced he would retire at the age of 37 after the Paris event.
Edwards is one of the handful of champions who have dominated an Olympic athletics discipline over the past decade and who are still competing but now, through a combination of age and injury, look suddenly vulnerable.
Haile Gebrselassie, 30, a role model for a generation of African distance runners, has been beaten twice over 5,000 meters this year and faces a tough battle to regain his 10,000 title. Hicham El Guerrouj, 28, who was acclaimed by twice Olympic 1,500 champion Sebastian Coe this week as probably the finest middle-distance runner ever, has been injured, as has 29-year-old defending 100 meters champion Maurice Greene.
