MONACO: Frank Fredericks has been suspended provisionally by the independent integrity unit of the world athletics federation over allegations linked to the award of the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The Namibian, a former four-times Olympic silver medallist who denies any wrongdoing, is under investigation by the disciplinary department of the IAAF.

He was one of several high-profile International Olympic Committee excused attendance at last week’s extraordinary session in Lausanne which approved a double award later this year of the 2024 and 2028 Games to Paris and Los Angeles.

Also absent was Ireland’s NOC president Patrick Hickey as well as Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti president of the Association of the Olympic Committees and of the Olympic Committee of Asia.

Fredericks, 49, has been reported as having received $300,000 on October 2, 2009, the same day that the IOC voted the 2016 Games to Rio.

French investigators have claimed that the funds were transferred from a marketing firm created by the son of the disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack.

The controversy prompted Fredericks to resign from chairmanship of the IOC evaluation committee which ran the 2024/2028 rule over Paris and Los Angeles earlier this year.

Rio 2016 has denied any involvement in illegal payments while Fredericks has said that the $300,000 he received was related to an unconnected consultancy.

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