Robert Harting launches video attack on IAAF

A group of athletes led by Olympic discus champion Robin Harting has released a video message criticizing track and field's world governing body over recent doping allegations. "Dear IAAF, we cannot trust you anymore," Harting said in the English-language video posted on YouTube. "We have to act now."

Harting, a three-time world champion who won Olympic gold in London in 2012, has been a vocal critic of the International Association of Athletics Federations. He declined to be considered for the IAAF's "Athlete of the Year" award in 2014 because he did not want to appear alongside candidates who have served doping bans, including US sprinter Justin Gatlin.

The video comes after reports by German broadcaster ARD and The Sunday Times newspaper in Britain that blood doping was rampant in the sport, citing leaked test results from an IAAF database. The IAAF has strongly rejected suggestions that it had failed to follow up on the suspicious tests and that it wasn't doing enough to uncover doping.

Harting's girlfriend, discus thrower Julia Fischer, holds up a handwritten message saying: "You broke my childhood dreams."

"You put money over athletes," says hammer thrower Kathrin Klaas, while 800-meter runner Robin Schembera adds: "I want to run against clean athletes, not monsters."

Harting concludes with the message, "You betrayed my beliefs." The athletes say they demand "honesty, integrity, transparency." They hold up signs with the hashtag #hitIAAF. The doping reports were published ahead of this month's world championships in Beijing, which the IAAF said is "causing stress and confusion" for athletes.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is investigating the claims made by ARD, and the IAAF said it is "comfortable that an independent, impartial assessment of the data and the follow-up action by the IAAF will now be made by the competent authority."

jh/gb (AP)