IAAF denies accusations of widespread doping

London, August 4

The world governing body for athletics (IAAF) on Tuesday dismissed media reports of widespread doping in the sport.

The IAAF said the reports by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper and Germany's ARD/WDR broadcaster offered no new evidence that any athlete had failed a drugs test and wrongly implied that the governing body had failed to look into the results when they first came out.

“The IAAF takes the allegations published by The Sunday Times and ARD very seriously and has investigated them thoroughly," the IAAF said in a nine-page statement.

"The published allegations were sensationalist and confusing: the results referred to were not positive tests. In fact, ARD and The Sunday Times both admit that their evaluation of the data did not prove doping."

The statement included a background summary on how blood testing is carried out and specific responses to some of the accusations,

Tthe IAAF condemned the publication of what it said was private and confidential data obtained without their consent. "There is no space for shortcuts, simplistic approaches or sensationalism when athletes’ careers and reputations are at stake," said Professor Giuseppe d'Onofrio, described as one of the world's leading haematologists working as an expert in the field of the Athlete Biological Passport.

The sport of track and field, which has plagued by some spectacular doping cases over the past three decades, was thrown into crisis on Sunday after reports a whistleblower had released secret data indicating suspected widespread blood doping in athletics between 2001 and 2012. The tests were analysed by two Australian scientists who later told Reuters that while more than 800 athletes had recorded one or more "abnormal" results, which is not proof of doping but still suspicious.

Money at heart of coverup, former BALCO chief

Washington: Victor Conte, the man at the centre of what was the United States’ biggest doping scandal, believes the latest drug scandal to rock the sports world is all part of a coverup to protect the bottom line.

Conte, who ran a little Bay Area laboratory called BALCO on the outskirts of San Francisco that became the epicentre of a massive doping scandal in the early 2000s, said the reports show a lack of genuine interest by world sport’s anti-doping chiefs to catch cheaters and smacks of a coverup to protect financial interests. “There is a financial conflict of interest,” Conte said. “These tests are bad for business. Many, many, many positive drug tests over the years, I personally know about, have been covered up. The reason is ... it is bad business,” he said. Sponsors and television rights holders have become increasingly concerned over linking their brands and products with scandal hit events and organizations. — Reuters

‘5% Indian athletes among blood dope offenders’

The sensational media reports of widespread blood doping in world athletics has also pointed the finger of suspicion at the Indian athletes, though experts in the country are not very clear about how it could have happened. One Indian expert said that blood doping in India could be possible as erythropoietin (EPO) is available in India and athletes might have used it, if at all the reports are to be true. “I don’t know whether these reports about Indian athletes would have been true or not. But at the same time, you cannot rule out blood doping in India as EPO is available in the market,” Sports Medicine expert PSM Chandran told PTI. “Blood doping can be in two ways. Earlier, it was done through transfusion of one’s own blood. An athlete withdraws his own blood, stores it at freeze point and re-infuses it before competition. Now, the latest is the easier one, that is by injecting banned substance erythropoietin. This EPO is available in India and so you can’t ruled out blood doping in India,” he added. — PTI