IAAF’s Move Keeps It Step Ahead of Reynolds

Everyone who follows track and field knows Butch Reynolds is the fastest 400-meter runner of all time. But the record he set Wednesday was for distance. He chased the International Amateur Athletic Federation from London to Monte Carlo.

Before the 181 members here for their annual Congress voted overwhelmingly to move the headquarters, the IAAF’s general secretary, Istvan Gyulai, said Reynolds’ legal action was “the most important reason” for resettling early next year in Monte Carlo.

Gyulai quickly realized he had attached more significance to Reynolds’ case than is politically correct within the IAAF, amending his statement to: “If you conclude we’re leaving because of Reynolds, I did not say that.”

There were other reasons for the track and field governing body’s flight from London after almost 50 years, foremost among them an offer of rent-free offices.

It also should be noted that the IAAF began considering the move long before Reynolds stepped inside a courtroom.

But, IAAF officials acknowledge, the realization of how vulnerable they were to legal pursuits, such as Reynolds’, while headquartered in London ultimately caused them to take action.

Reynolds, who set the world record in the 400 meters in 1988, was suspended for two years in 1990, when the IAAF ruled he tested positive for an anabolic steroid after a meet in Monte Carlo.

Claiming innocence, Reynolds took the IAAF to court in the United States. Although he was not reinstated until he had served his two-year suspension, as well as an additional 4 1/2 months, he eventually was awarded a $27.3-million judgment by a federal judge in his hometown, Columbus, Ohio.

IAAF officials would have preferred to fight the battle on their home turf, but their lawyers told them they were prevented from doing so because the federation is unincorporated in London.

When exasperated IAAF officials threatened to sue Reynolds for slander, their lawyers told them they couldn’t, for the same reason.

“We are the equivalent of a guy selling tomatoes on the corner,” said Enrico Jacomini, an assistant to IAAF President Primo Nebiolo.

In Monaco, however, Jacomini said the IAAF will become “an incorporated, international organization with a defined judicial personality. If Joe Smith from Honolulu wants to sue us, he will have to go to Monte Carlo.”

Reynolds will run the 400 in the outdoor World Championships that begin here Friday night.