The IAAF has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to double the doping ban of Olympic 100 metres champion Justin Gatlin.
The American, who had an initial eight-year ban for two failed drugs tests reduced to four years by a US arbitration panel in January, is currently appealing to the CAS to halve his sentence again.
However, the IAAF is strongly opposed to the appeal and actually wants the 26-year-old's ban extended back to eight years - a sentence that would effectively end his career.
'At the moment there is a seemingly bizarre situation going on,' IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told Sport Insider.
'He wants his ban halved and we want it doubled. We have approached the Court of Arbitration and the documentation is being processed. I do not know when the issue will be resolved or when the cases will be heard.'
The Federation's reasoning centres on the fact Gatlin has failed two doping tests, which would normally constitute a lifetime ban.
He failed his first test in 2001 when amphetamines were found in his samples at the USA Junior Championships, but it was accepted that medicine he had been taking for 10 years to control attention-deficit disorder caused the finding and he was reinstated after serving 13 months of a two-year ban.
He then tested positive for testosterone in 2006 and was stripped of his world record.
Now, Gatlin's lawyers claim his first test should be wiped from the record as it was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, meaning his 2006 conviction was worth a maximum of a two-year ban as he was a first-time offender.
If successful, it would allow Gatlin to appear at this summer's Olympics, but the IAAF says it would not 'accept such a ruling'.
Davies added: 'In 2001 he was given special dispensation to return to competition despite the test, but it was stated at the time any further failures would count as a second strike and a lifetime ban. In 2006 he collected a second strike.'
