Athletics: Moroccan legend cast under drugs cloud

Australian sports officials will investigate claims that a former distance-running coach pushed performance-enhancing drugs.

Steeplechaser Melissa Rollison claims legend Said Aouita suggested she take human growth hormone.

Rollison's claims support Victorian runner Mark Fountain, who initially made drug allegations against Aouita in 2004 in a letter to the Australian Sports Commission (ASC).

Aouita's two-year reign as Australia's distance-running coach ended the same year and the Moroccan Olympic 5000m champion has not returned to Australia since.

The 2004 claims were investigated by the ASC, Athletics Australia (AA) and the Australian Institute of Sport but Aouita was cleared of any doping links.

AA chief executive Danny Corcoran said the latest Rollison allegations had been referred to the ASC for investigation.

Corcoran said the claims were obviously a "heavy burden" on Rollison but were "simply allegations which may be difficult to verify".

He said the 2003-04 period was a "disappointing time for the sport, irrespective of whether these allegations were to be proven".

"This is a view found to be widely held by the athletics community," Corcoran said.

Rollison said her 18 months as an athlete under Aouita were a nightmare, saying he recommended she take human growth hormone at a US training camp in 2003.

"He talked about it every day," Rollison told the Herald Sun newspaper.

"We had to go to America because that is where you get HGH.

"I said right at the start that I wasn't interested and he was like 'everyone else is on it, so why wouldn't you want to do it?'

"I said I wanted to make it the proper way but he then tried to convince me HGH wasn't illegal."

Aouita was recently appointed an advisor to Qatar's Academy for Sporting Excellence, Apsire, based in Doha.

- NZPA