The former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) now World Athletics died last night in Dakar at the age of 88.
By Ibrahima Dione
The announcement this morning of the death of Lamine Diack sent shockwaves throughout Senegal.
He returned home on 10 May after more than five years of absence due to a ban on leaving French territory.
Diack was sentenced, on September 16, 2020, to four years in prison, two of which are firm, by the Criminal Court of Paris.
He was found “guilty of active and passive corruption and breach of trust” in a vast corruption network that covered up doping cases involving Russian athletes.
Born in Rebeuss, a populous district of downtown Dakar, who had appealed against this conviction in the first instance, was still facing a second trial.
Diack had to answer to the suspicions of vote buying in the attribution of the Olympic Games of Rio 2016 (Brazil) and Tokyo 2020 (Japan), but also the World Athletics Championships of Beijing 2015 (China), London 2017 (England) and Doha 2019 (Qatar).
Jaraaf FC paid tribute to the memory of its founding member who “will leave a great void in (hearts) and will remain forever in the legend” of the club.
If the French long jump champion in 1958 was able to pass away with his biological family, it is mainly thanks to the sacrifice of the Dakar omnisport club chaired by Cheikh Seck, goalkeeper of the Senegalese national football team in the 1980s.
Jaraaf sold part of its property to pay the bail of 500,000 euros (about 328 million CFA francs) set by the French court.
On Twitter, Macky Sall said that “Senegal has lost one of its most illustrious sons”.
For the head of state, the deceased was “a man of great dimension.” In addition to sport, Lamine Diack had a political career that allowed him to be mayor of the capital, MP and Minister of Sport.
ID/lb/as/APA