MONTE CARLO: Frankie Fredericks, former multiple Olympic and world championship medallist, has stepped down temporarily from the council of the world athletics federation pending an ethics investigation.

IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe, in Uganda for the World Cross Country Championships, said: “I have spoken to him regularly since this issue came out and he decided to step away from all this as he needs time to sort all this.

“He also indicated that he will not attend the Council meeting in London.”

At the beginning of March, Fredericks stepped down from an IAAF taskforce, which is coordinating the readmission of the suspended Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF).

This follows allegations in Le Monde concerning a payment by the son of disgraced fomer IAAF president, Lamine Diack, to Fredericks, on the same day in 2009 that Rio de Janeiro was awarded host rights to the 2016 Olympics.

The American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has produced evidence of Papa Diack making a transfer of $300,000 to a Seychelle company, Yemi Limited in 2009. Fredericks is linked to the company.

Fredericks has denied wrongdoing but saw fit to refer himself to the IOC Ethics Commission.

Papa Diack and his father, Lamine, have both either been charged or implicated in multiple counts of corruption, from covering up international doping to questionable activities surrounding the award of hosting rights to International Olympic Committee and IAAF events.

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