IAAF special congress passes president Coe's reforms, voted by 182-10

An IAAF special Congress in Monaco overwhelmingly adopted on Saturday a reform package drawn up by president Sebastian Coe.

Some 197 of 213 member federations were present for the vote, which resulted in 182 for, 10 against and five invalid for Coe's reform expected to change the structure of the athletics' world governing body.

"This is a very important moment in the history of our sport," said Coe, who took office in 2015 after the selection held during the world championships in Beijing.

Coe's proposals, which dedicate to move the sport forward from its tainted past, emphasize on establishing new independent anti-doping, integrity and disciplinary functions along with a greater voice for athletes in the organisation and more gender balance.

The reforms also give more governance power to the IAAF Executive Board, in nodding to the abuse of the presidency of disgraced former president Lamine Diack, who's currently under investigation by French authorities on corruption and money-laundering charges.

As outlined in the 'Time For Change' document, two constitutions were voted on as part of one vote at the Special Congress. The 2017 Constitution enables integrity related reforms to be implemented next year, while the 2019 Constitution brings in the remainder of the reforms.

"We're putting in place a framework that should have been there years ago," said Coe, telling members that they should all feel "violated" given the amount of money that had been siphoned off instead of having been "used for the development of athletics."

Since Coe took over the presidency, the IAAF has been mired in the fall-out from Diack's corruption scandal and Russia's doping issues, which led the ruling body to ban the Russian athletics federation and its athletes from participating in this year's Rio Olympics.

What's unexpected at the end of the vote was that the detailed results were displayed on a big screen, showing that the 10 against votes came from Benin, Bahrain, Chad, Gambia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and the five invalid were from Jamaica, Oman, Senegal, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Jamaica's sprint superstar Usain Bolt, however, has thrawn his weight behind Coe, saying that "Seb Coe is trying to make track and field more transparent to everyone so they can see what shape it is in and to make sure there is not one person fully in control."

"That's a bold move from him as IAAF president," said the 30-year-old while receiving a record sixth IAAF Athlete of the Year Award at Friday evening's year-ending gala.

"That's also helped the sport to make people more confident and to trust the sport more," added Bolt, a nine-time Olympic champion who's retiring after the 2017 season.

"I am incredibly proud of the decision that was taken this morning, both the endorsement for the work of the Council by the Congress and let me immediately place on record my thanks to the reform team," said Coe at a post-meeting press conference on Saturday.

"We now have structures, we now have frameworks and foundations that will create a safety net. That safety net has to also be responsive to cultural shifts and cultural changes. But it is a good day and there is now a whole heap more work to do to make sure that we drive on into a far better future," he added.

A new version of report by Canadian professor Richard McLaren is expected to come public on Dec. 9, which may reveal more about the organisation and doping in Russia. Endit