Thomas Bach has paid tribute to the outgoing International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, the man he is seeking to succeed, as an unerring ally in the fight against doping for 12 years.
Bach, the frontrunner among the six men vying to be elected president tomorrow in Buenos Aires, said he had known when he took decisions at various commissions in the fight against doping that Rogge would back him 100 per cent.
59 year old Bach, who if elected would be the first Olympic gold medallist to assume the top office in world sport having a fencing team title in 1976 for West Germany, even dared to contravene a directive from Rogge who had said he preferred that no tributes should be paid to him.
Rogge, whose reign has restored the IOC's image, remained impassive but delivered one of his trademark dry self-deprecatory remarks, saying "Your disobedience tells me that I have reached the level of irrelevance," .
