London: IOC commission visits different stadiums

A commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) finished its penultimate inspection of 2012 Olympic Games venues in London on Friday and described arrangements for the games as very positive.The commission also had to answer questions about Thursdays (October 6) overturning of a ban on athletes found guilty of doping competing in the Olympics.Commission chairman Denis Oswald, himself a former Olympic rower, finished the inspection visit by saying some elements of the organisation might need fine tuning but recent test events, including road cycling and archery, had gathered very positive comments from athletes and officials.During the commissions three day visit its members visited the newly-opened main Olympic stadium in east London and watched competition in an official Olympic test event - the London Archery Classic tournament - held at Lords cricket ground close to the heart of London.Oswald was asked about this weeks ruling by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which went in favour of an appeal by 400 metre Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt. The court held that a ban on competing in the Olympics after the end of his 21-month suspension for doping amounted to a second penalty for the same offence.Jacques Rogge, IOC president, has worked to ban such athletes, using the so-called Osaka Rule, and this ruling may have cleared the way for dozens of past doping offenders to compete at next years Games.The British Olympic Association (BOA) said on Thursday it would not change its by-law which bans its own athletes from the Olympics for life if they have served a suspension for doping. This would put it at variance with national sports associations which accepted the CAS ruling.The BOA argues that its by-law is an eligibility ruling rather than a sanction and LOCOG chairman Seb Coe, and the IOC, offered support to the BOAs strong stance on Friday.Oswald said that the IOC supported the testing of the ban by a court well in advance of an Olympic Games rather than have a series of court cases in the months leading up to the games.