Big names falling foul of doping damages athletics' image and it shouldn't just be the athletes who face the consequences, says Katharine Merry

In so many ways, July was an excellent month for the world of athletics. It began with a fitting 50th anniversary edition of the Prefontaine Classic that served up a healthy portion of world record-breaking, as well as a large serving of top-level competition.

There were more positives to feast on at the London Diamond League meeting, too, as the star names put on a show – Charlie Dobson’s 400m win was brilliant, wasn’t it? – to send the sell-out 60,000 crowd home more than happy. That same day had also delivered the very welcome news that the UK government is backing the bid to bring the World Championships back to London in 2029 and, although few fans will have noticed, UK Athletics attracted a new headline sponsor – Novuna – meaning that the governing body’s coffers will receive a much-needed boost. Oh and you can also add a new TV deal with the BBC to the list.

Magazine deadlines mean I’m writing this just before all of the national championships and trials that will decide the teams for the World Championships in Tokyo but, at the moment, there is also the sense that the outcome of quite a few events will be hard to predict this year. There’s more jeopardy, both domestically and worldwide, which is exactly what we want as we approach the business end of the season.

It would be such a welcome change if the sport could have a little period of being able to sail along quite nicely like that without any unwanted distractions or developments but, of course, that’s not how the world works and it seems there’s always something around the corner.

This time, that “something” happened just before the London meeting, when news broke that the women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepn’getich had been provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance. While it didn’t come as an enormous surprise – unfortunately, it only felt like a matter of time before this happened – it was still a kick in the teeth for the sport.

There’s a reason why her world record of 2:09:56 at Chicago was greeted with scepticism rather than celebration by the athletics community back in October. It just didn’t seem entirely believable. As I wrote in these pages at the time, whenever there is a breakthrough like that I go through a checklist of credibility – past performances, track record, the people the athlete works with and so on – to assess how believable it is.

In this case, two things immediately stand out. Firstly, Chepn’getich is from Kenya, a nation that is currently struggling with very well-documented doping issues. Secondly, her agent is Federico Rosa, a man who has represented a number of other high profile athletes to have been suspended for similar offences in recent years.

Now, the fact he has looked after these athletes doesn’t automatically mean he is complicit in any cheating – and he works with a very large number of sportspeople – but this is a trend which does him no favours at all, especially in the sporting world where perception is everything.

I know there are more stringent checks and regulations for agents to go through now, and that World Athletics introduced an Integrity Code of Conduct a few years back, but how many strikes should you be allowed before you’re out?

This is not some random one-off so it’s time to start introducing stiff punishments for those where this kind of issue becomes a recurring theme. Whether that punishment is financial or as simple as revoking the accreditations that allow these people to do their jobs, there have to be consequences. Repeat problems should mean reprisals.

At the London Diamond League meeting, there was a very clear reminder of the wider impact that doping can have. It’s great that the British 4x400m relay team who won silver at the 1997 World Championships were eventually upgraded to gold following the USA’s disqualification due to a doping violation by Antonio Pettigrew, but the fact they had to wait 28 years to stand on top of a podium to receive those medals is just not right.

Yes, it was a lovely moment and it was wonderful to see them getting such an amazing reception from the London Stadium crowd, but I wonder how many of that crowd hadn’t even been born when that 1997 race was taking place? One of Jamie Baulch’s grandchildren was there to see him presented with his medal, for goodness sake, and I imagine that scenario hadn’t been in his thoughts back during his international career!

As we know, athletics isn’t the only sport to have its issues with doping. The winners of both the men’s and women’s titles at Wimbledon last month have both received suspensions for anti-doping violations in the past 12 months, while it still haunts cycling as well.

I hear people use the phrase “I can’t get excited about watching them” when talking about sportspeople who have been found guilty of, or been linked with doping, and I find that situation incredibly sad.

So instead I’ll continue to focus on the fact that more and more people who break the rules are being caught and that, if the 2029 bid goes to plan, we could have another global showpiece on our shores in the not too distant future.

The outcome of the London bid will be announced in September of next year and, between now and then, we’ll have the European Championships in Birmingham, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and another edition of the London Diamond League to underline how good Britain is at hosting major events. All of these are wonderful shop windows and I really hope we can use them to cast our sport in a truly positive light.