After a leaked email surfaced yesterday, IAAF Deputy General Secretary Nick Davies has announced that he is stepping down from the IAAF. The email showed evidence that Davies was attempting to delay the naming of Russian drug cheats before the 2013 World Championships. 

As first reported by Sean Ingle from The Guardian, Davies said that in order for the authorities to conduct a full investigation, he needed to “step aside from my role with the IAAF until such time as the Ethics Board is able to review the matter and decide if I am responsible for any breach of the IAAF Code of Ethics.”

BREAKING: Nick Davies, Seb Coe's close aide, has left the IAAF after leaked email showed he discussed how to limit damage of Russian doping

— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) December 22, 2015

Statement from Nick Davies pic.twitter.com/0HWROXBxsA

— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) December 22, 2015

Davies has worked as IAAF President Sebastian CoeÂ’s close aid since Coe was named president in August at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing. The email that was leaked by French newspaper Le Monde was addressed to then-IAAF marketing consultant Papa Massata Diack and shows evidence that Davies was planning to delay the naming of Russian drug cheats prior to the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

Diack along with his father and former IAAF President Lamine Diack are both currently under investigation following the elder Diack's November arrest on charges of money-laundering and corruption. 

Davies wrote that the message was “top secret” and expressed a PR plan to ensure minimal media coverage of the “Russian ‘skeleton” they were hiding in the closet regarding doping. He also urged then-Russian federation president Valentin Balakhnichev to prevent any of those athletes from competing at Worlds, and that those athletes would be revealed following the championships at the same time as other guilty athletes from other countries. 

Yesterday Davies responded to the leaked email by denying any specific PR plan that was put in place to interfere with anti-doping procedure.