Harting launches scathing attack on IOC's Bach

"For me, he is a part of the doping system, not the anti-doping system. I am ashamed of Thomas Bach," the 2012 gold medal winner told news agency SID.

"Personally, I detest this person more than ever and am very ashamed that I have to work with him indirectly."

Harting's comments come after Bach's organization decided against a blanket ban on all Russian competitors in Rio despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) reporting a wide-ranging system run from the very top of society designed to cover up positive tests.

While the International Athletics Federation's (IAAF) ban on Russian track and field athletes competing internationally still stands, the IOC's ruling gave individual sporting federations less than two weeks to decide their stance on the Rio Games, which begin on August 5.

Bach, an Olympic fencing champion in 1976, defended the IOC decision, claiming it "respects the right of every clean athlete around the world."

Speaking to DPA on Tuesday he said: "The IOC had to make a difficult decision. We had to decide between the punishment for a system and the extent to which you can hold athletes responsible for such a system."

But Harting, who has long been a fierce critic of Bach and doping in sport, said the situation was "simply embarrassing," before expressing his belief that under Bach's presidency, the IOC has "reached a new level of disappointment."

The Cottbuss-born thrower is also disappointed that an IOC ethics commission opted not to allow whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova, the Russian 800-metre runner who lifted the lid on systematic doping fraud in her country, to compete in Rio as a neutral athlete.

Harting will be bidding to defend his Olympic title in Rio despite tearing a chest muscle and suffering an inflamed right knee at the start of the year. He missed the entire 2014 season with a torn knee ligament.

He isn't the only German angry with the IOC president, with Hans Wilhelm Gaeb, the 80-year-old former president of the German Table Tennis Association, set to return the Olympic Order given to him in 2006 by Bach.

"I think the decision is the severest blow to the integrity of sport and the Olympic principles," Gaeb said in a statement to SID.

"I don't want to wear the recognition of an organization which betrays the ideals of sport."

With less than two weeks to go, it is still unclear whether Russian athletes from a number of sports will be allowed to compete in Rio.

mp (AFP)