TAC’s Cassell Easily Retains Posts in Voting : Track and field: Group’s executive director, once thought to be vulnerable to challenge, defeats Southland’s Crumpton.

For several months there has been a sentiment among some in the track and field community that The Athletics Congress Executive Director Ollan Cassell has been wielding too much power and his 20-year rule must end.

This faction expected to mount a fight at TAC’s annual convention, where Cassell was running for re-election to his position on the International Amateur Athletic Federation Council and as a candidate for IAAF vice-president, a powerful post within track and field’s international body.

As fights go, this was strictly a one-punch knockout. Cassell swept to victories in both elections Saturday in the final day of the convention, and his agenda for the future of the organization was similarly accepted.

Cassell overcame a challenge from Jim Crumpton, a track coach at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut and a former vice president of the Southern California Assn. of TAC. In balloting Friday and Saturday, Cassell was elected as the U.S. representative on the IAAF Council by a vote of 253-125. Cassell also became TAC’s nominee for IAAF vice president by a 268-111 vote. Cassell currently holds the post.

Crumpton’s challenge was actively backed by the Southern California Assn. and its former president, Skip Stolley. Despite a campaign that utilized extensive mailings and word of mouth, Crumpton’s candidacy was viewed by many as nice but not at all practical.

As Cassell swept to power, so did his policies. A restructuring proposal, formulated to disperse some of Cassell’s power, was adopted Saturday. The plan calls for two executive positions to be created: senior director of operations and senior director of administration.

Candidates for the positions will be recruited by an executive search firm. However, TAC’s executive committee voted to exempt Cassell’s position from the nationwide search. Additionally, Cassell will review the candidates and recommend the two to take the new executive positions.

The cost of the additional positions is expected to be about $250,000.

In other business during the week TAC:

--Closed a loophole in its out-of-competition drug testing program by eliminating the “75-rule.” Under the program, athletes chosen at random had to report to the nearest TAC-designated drug testing center. However, if an athlete lived beyond a 75-mile radius of the center, the athlete was excused.

TAC eliminated the rule by contracting with EMSI, a Dallas-based company that will send mobile crews to the athletes, no matter where they live.

--Voted to revert to a former policy regarding the announcement of positive drug tests. TAC will not release the names of athletes who test positive for drugs until after all appeals have been exhausted.

Previously, TAC had released the names of athletes who had failed both portions of a drug test.

--Voted not to award championship events to states that have no paid state holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr.