IAAF clears Paula Radcliffe of blood-doping allegations

Coe has said athletics has been “shamed” by relentless doping cases and corruption allegations.

The three-time London Marathon victor was implicated after German broadcaster ARD and the Sunday Times reported allegations of widespread doping.

Radcliffe admitted she was relieved to have been cleared after having her name wrongly dragged through the mud.

“We want to eradicate doping from our sport but we can never put any innocent athlete through what I had to go through this summer”, Radcliffe told Sky Sports.

Britain’s national anti-doping agency UKAD said: “UKAD has reviewed the data concerning Paula Radcliffe which, upon our request, was shared with us by the IAAF”.

And the governing body was equally scathing about allegations that it failed to act on hundreds of “suspicious” test results overseveral years, claiming they were based on “inaccurate and unfounded scientific and legal argument”.

Radcliffe, one of the darlings of the British sporting world for a decade, denied all the allegations from the start.

It concluded there is “no basis whatsoever for the insinuations made against her” following reports that a high-profile British athlete was among those who had provided “suspicious” blood tests.

The IAAF said it screened almost 8,000 blood samples for potential markers of blood doping, and followed up with thousands of urine tests to detect the presence of rEPO which has led to 145 athletes being caught with the blood doping agent in their systems.

“When all of the necessary information is considered, however (as the WADA ABP [Athlete Biological Passport protocols] require), there are clearly plausible explanations for the values in her profile that are entirely innocent”.

The global head of athletics, Sebastian Coe, has promised to do all he can to clean up the battered reputation of his sport and the organisation that runs it and has made changes in the way the IAAF operates in Monaco.

After coming close to being identified during a Culture, Media and Sport select committee hearing in September, Radcliffe outed herself as the athlete in question.

It is understood such a method of collecting blood samples within two hours of strenuous exercise is now banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, as dehydration causes tests to register false positives.

“For example, in two of the cases highlighted by The Sunday Times, the samples were collected immediately after competition”.

“The IAAF can not sit idly by while public confidence in its willingness to protect the integrity of its sport is undermined by allegations of inaction/incompetence that are based on bad scientific and legal argument”.

“Any competent scientist would immediately conclude that they should be disregarded”, the statement added.