TRACK AND FIELD WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS : Questions on Doping Take Precedence Over Events

It may say all that needs be said about the state of track and field that of the questions asked organizers of the World Indoor Track Championships, not one pertained to the competition. In a 90-minute news conference, most questions from the international media were about drugs.

Those not about drugs were about money.

The situation infuriated Primo Nebiolo, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, track and field’s international governing body. With the sport’s most prestigious indoor competition about to begin--events run through Sunday at the Skydome--track officials were eager to deflect attention from recent controversy.

Several times, Nebiolo refused to answer questions about the doping incident last month involving Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson or the presence of Butch Reynolds, the IAAF’s avowed enemy.

“I don’t believe I would make a press conference about the World Championships in Toronto and it’s a conference of doping,” Nebiolo said. “This is incredible. We are not the doping federation. We are not the police federation.”

But there was no escape. Canadian reporters pressed him about the Johnson case, asking Nebiolo if the IAAF’s slow response to the sprinter’s second positive drug test was calculated to protect the World Championships from embarrassment.

The Canadian track federation notified the IAAF on Feb. 1 that Johnson--who was stripped of his Olympic gold medal in 1988 after testing positive for banned drugs--had again failed a test. Under international rules, a second positive carries a lifetime ban.

Only after an IAAF official leaked the story of Johnson’s test did the IAAF move to hold a hearing. Johnson, who maintains his innocence, retired last week rather than fight the ban.

The most revealing tidbit from the exchange was Nebiolo’s revelation that the IAAF spends only 1.1% of its budget on drug testing.

Another controversial figure loomed--Reynolds, the world record-holder at 400 meters. The IAAF banned him for two years in 1990 after traces of an anabolic steroid were found in his urine. Reynolds fought in U.S. courts and won a $27.3-million judgment.

Reynolds will compete in Toronto, beginning today, representing the United States for the first time since the 1988 Olympic Games. He says his most fervent wish is to win the 400 meters and have Nebiolo present his gold medal.

“You have no idea how much that will mean to me,” Reynolds said.