COMMENTS from outgoing IAAF president Lamine Diack describing the doping allegations currently engulfing athletics as a “joke” are not helpful.

While you would expect the head of a major international body to defend his organisation, suggest - ing that there is a hidden agenda to “redistribute medals” is more than slightly alarming.

Such a statement reads as if he feels the situation is almost a personal attack, when it is nothing of the sort.

He could have acknowledged that the sport has a long-standing problem with the use of performance- enhancing drugs and the authorities would be doing everything within their powers to stamp it out — regardless of whether the pre - sent allegations had any substance to them.

High profile athletes such as sprinter Justin Gatlin have been found guilty in the recent past, not to mention the current allegations against Alberto Salazar, the coach of Mo Farah.

To dismiss the current allegations - which imply that hundreds of athletes have provided suspect blood tests between 2001 and 2012 - as mere speculation seeking to harm the sport is wholly the wrong approach.

Athletics is already damaged goods and needs all the help it can get in restoring its image to the wid - er sporting fraternity.

Like any sport, we want to believe the action we are watching is genuine and not falsified by external el - ements designed to gain an advantage.

Thankfully, the International Olympic Committee have promised a zero tolerance policy, opting to face up to the issue rather than bury their heads in the sand and cry conspiracy theory