Duncan Mackay: Russian crisis has helped Coe consolidate his position as master of all he surveys

Duncan Mackay: Russian crisis has helped Coe consolidate his position as master of all he surveys

When it was revealed, somewhat surprisingly, on the eve of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) election in 2015 that Russia were backing Sebastian Coe rather than his rival Sergey Bubka to replace Lamine Diack as the world governing body's new President, they could surely never have imagined they would spend most of the Briton's first term banned from the sport.