Sebastian Coe promised he would fight for tougher penalties for drugs cheats after being elected as the new chairman of the British Olympic Association (BOA) yesterday.

Lord Coe said he was disappointed when the BOA's lifetime ban for athletes found guilty of doping was overturned in court in May, and that he will seek to enforce a zero-tolerance approach.

"You know where I come from over drugs. I've been battling that for as long as I've effectively been a competitor," he said. "My stance is still non-negotiable and this organisation was right to believe that it has to be within the interests and power of the organisation to decide what is best for that organisation.

"I will chair an organisation that will always take a zero-tolerance approach to drug abuse in sport but we have to recognise that we are in a much more complex and complicated legal landscape than we were 30 years ago."