LOCAL runners have welcomed a new crackdown campaign to clean-up athletics at the top level.

UK Athletics announced the campaign this week for clean athletics including resetting every single world record due to the sport's doping crisis, and says it will seek to bring in a lifetime ban for any athlete guilty of a serious drugs violation.

Athletes at grassroots level in the Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire regions only run for fun and have no reason whatsoever to take banned substances.

However, just as when cycling was plagued by drugs issues and cheats at the top end, being tarred with the same brush extends to all levels of a sport.

Two prominent local runners have voiced their personal opinions and said the campaign will be good for athletics.

Dursley Running Club’s David Durden said: “It is good to see UKA again taking a lead against doping. The British Olympic Association has always taken a hard line on drugs cheats and those who compete for the love of sport will be pleased to see this lead being taken.

“As we have seen in cycling, the pressures and temptation within professional sports mean that governing bodies need to have strong governance and good systems in place to prevent cheating and protect athletes who may not be willing participants in doping but may feel they have little choice to maintain their place in a squad or continue as a professional athlete.”

Thornbury Running Club’s Judy Mills agreed, adding: “All competitive runners want to produce their best performance; something achieved through training and diet.

“With various performance enhancing substances on the market, there can be a fine line between what is acceptable and what is not, but the rules are there and readily available for information.

“No athlete has any excuse for crossing that line even if the line itself moves in the light of new research and technology.

“The phrase 'to thine own self be true' comes to mind. If I cross the line first through cheating I gain nothing but lose my self-respect. Nothing gained.”

Britain’s double London Olympic Games champion Mo Farah was forced to defend his record as a clean athlete following allegations against his coach Alberto Salazar in a BBC TV Panorama programme last year.

UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner said the new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lord Coe was in favour of re-setting world records which may or may not have been tainted by drugs allegations in the past.

Warner said: "I met Seb Coe and he told me he is in favour of picking off those records that are clearly wrong. If he can do that, then wonderful and let's get on with it. We believe all world records should be reset once the necessary measures have been brought in.”