Fredericks suspended over Diack payment

PARIS: Former world champion sprinter Frankie Fredericks has been provisionally suspended from his role in athletics pending an ethics investigation, the IAAF said on Monday.

Fredericks was suspended from his role as member of the IAAF’s ruling council amid a probe by the IAAF’s integrity unit led by former English Court of Appeal judge Sir Anthony Hooper, the IAAF said.

Fredericks stood down himself from his role as head of the IOC’s evaluation commission for the 2024 Olympics, but the IAAF said it felt it had no choice but to officially suspend him too.“The order for provisional suspension does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation which the athletics integrity unit is carrying out,” the IAAF said.

In March, the French daily Le Monde said he received $299,300 dollars (262,000 euros) from Papa Massata Diack, son of ex-IAAF president Lamine Diack, on October 2, 2009, the day Rio de Janeiro was awarded the right to host the 2016 Olympics.