The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) cleared marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe of doping allegations on Friday and rejected claims that it failed to act on hundreds of suspicious blood tests, saying the accusations lacked “any scientific or legal basis.”
Track and field’s governing body issued a 38-page response to allegations by British and German media outlets that it had ignored and tolerated rampant blood doping in the sport.
“The IAAF is not complacent about doping in its sport,” the federation said. “It will continue to use every tool at its disposal to fight doping and protect clean athletes.”
Photo: AFP
The statement was released a few days before IAAF president Sebastian Coe faces a British parliamentary hearing into the doping allegations made by the Sunday Times newspaper and German broadcaster ARD.
Already reeling from revelations of government-backed doping in Russia and criminal corruption charges against former IAAF president Lamine Diack, the federation said it had a duty to set the record straight on the blood doping issue.
“The IAAF cannot sit idly by while public confidence in its willingness to protect the integrity of its sport is undermined by allegations of inaction [and] incompetence that are based on bad scientific and legal argument,” it said.
The IAAF singled out the case of Radcliffe, saying the three-time London Marathon winner was publicly accused of doping “based on the gross misinterpretation of raw and incomplete data.”
Elevated blood value readings in some of Radcliffe’s tests had “clearly plausible” explanations that were “entirely innocent,” the IAAF said.
The IAAF said it followed up by testing Radcliffe’s urine and blood samples for erythropoietin — a hormone that controls red blood cell production — and blood transfusions, and all the results came back negative. It said it collected 14 blood samples from Radcliffe for screening purposes from 2001 to 2008.
“The circumstances in which Ms Radcliffe came to be publicly accused are truly shocking,” the IAAF said, adding that she was “hounded remorselessly” by the media until she felt compelled to publicly defend herself.
“Obviously there’s been damage done to my reputation, and to the reputation of the sport, and that’s why I took the stand I did against this,” Radcliffe said on Friday after the release of the IAAF statement. “Yes, it was only me being singled out, but there are a lot of other innocent, clean athletes who have or may produce an atypical value at some point. That’s precisely why it has to be kept so confidential until an expert that’s properly qualified looks at it and assesses it.”
Britain’s national anti-doping agency said it also reviewed Radcliffe’s test results and agreed there was no case against her.
“The data does not provide any evidence that any anti-doping rule violation proceedings should be brought,” the UK Anti-Doping Agency said.
Radcliffe, who retired from competition this year, was publicly implicated during a British parliamentary hearing in August into the doping allegations leveled by the British and German media.
She acknowledged that her blood-testing data might have shown “fluctuations,” but insisted there were no “abnormalities” and experts had concluded she had done nothing wrong.
Radcliffe set the world record when she ran two hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds in winning the 2003 London Marathon. She also won the New York Marathon three times — in 2004, 2007 and 2008 — and the Chicago Marathon in 2002. Radcliffe competed in four Olympics, but never won a medal.
The Sunday Times and ARD examined the results of 12,000 blood tests involving 5,000 athletes from a leaked IAAF database covering 2001 to 2012 and concluded there was evidence of widespread cheating.
The reports said that 146 medals in disciplines ranging from the 800m to the marathon at the Olympics and world championships were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious tests.
The Sunday Times also claimed the London Marathon was won seven times by athletes who recorded suspicious tests.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ¥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ¥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,