Athletics: Leaked blood test results claim one in three medallists have doped

August 2, 2015

Paris/France, Aug 2: Athletics faced a fresh doping scandal Saturday when leaked results from 12,000 blood tests taken from 5,000 competitors allegedly demonstrated instances of cheating and "a shameful betrayal" of clean athletes.

raceGerman broadcaster ARD as well as Britain's Sunday Times say they passed on their information to leading blood doping experts who concluded that track and field is in "the same diabolical position today that professional cycling was in 20 years ago".

The database, reportedly created by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), covers the period from 2001 to 2012, a statement from ARD said.

The findings were broadcast in a documentary screened in Germany on Saturday -- “Doping – Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics.”

Australian doping experts Michael Ashenden and Robin Parisotto came to a series of conclusions:

- A total of 800 athletes in disciplines from 800m to the marathon registered values which, according to the definition of the biological passport of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) are regarded as suspicious or even highly suspicious.

- In the analysis of the blood levels of the medal-winners at world championships and Olympics between 2001 and 2012, every third medal was won by athletes, for whom one or even both experts had identified suspicious blood values in the database.

- For every sixth medal winner at least one, they claimed, had doped in the course of his/her career.

“Often two out of the three medallists had probably engaged in blood doping during their career," Ashenden told the programme.

"In one event the entire podium was comprised of athletes, who in my opinion had most probably doped at some point in their career.”

Ashenden lashed out at the IAAF and their anti-doping policy.

“For the IAAF to have harvested millions of dollars from the broadcasting of athletics competitions...yet only devote a relative pittance of those funds towards anti-doping.

"...in my opinion (it's) a shameful betrayal of their primary duty to police their sport and to protect the clean athletes,” he said.

The values in the tests are not proof of cheating and the IAAF rejected criticism of its management.

"The IAAF has always been at the forefront in combating anti-doping, searching and implementing new analytical techniques and methodologies," said a statement released to the Sunday Times and carried by the BBC.

Since the introduction of the biological passport, the IAAF says it has "pursued more cases than all other anti-doping organisations together".

It added that it spent $2million a year on fighting doping.

The IAAF added in defence of its biological passport: "Any other approach, in particular, the use of data collected over a longer period for different purposes, with different objectives and with different methods of analysis, is nothing more than speculation."

Meanwhile, Russia and Kenya were subjected to new doping allegations in the documentary.

ARD, who last December aired similar accusations of doping and corruption in Russia, returned to the controversy just three weeks out from the world championships in Beijing.

"Despite assurances from the Russian authorities (in favour of a clean sport) doped competitors and their suppliers are always protected," the public broadcaster said in a statement.

The makers of the film claim to have evidence of human growth hormone being used to boost Russian runners.

They also say that a hidden camera recorded 800m athlete Anastasia Bazdireva as praising the benefits of drugs.

"With anabolics, I have stiff muscles. But I can run. It's hard but it's OK. You feel different with anabolics," she is recorded as claiming.

Journalists also returned to Kenya where they claim another hidden camera showed injections of "dangerous" doping products being administered.

The programme claimed that there is "massive corruption" within the Kenyan set-up and "a desire to cover-up doping...to the summit of the Kenyan athletics federation".

Kenya was rocked this year when marathon star Rita Jeptoo was banned for two years after being caught doping with the banned blood-boosting hormone EPO.

"Since 2006, I have not been forced to do a single blood test in Kenya," the 34-year-old is quoted as saying by ARD, adding that only urine tests were carried out.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Bengaluru, May 27: Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has revealed that he was never able to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq in the nets.

The Rawalpindi Express praised the former Pakistan skipper and said Inzamam could see the ball one second earlier than the rest of the batsmen could.

"Honestly, I don't think I could ever get him (Inzamam) out, he had the time and I always felt he saw the ball a second earlier than the rest of the batsmen because I had a complicated action unlike Brett Lee, I felt I could never dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I couldn't get him out in the nets, I think he could see the ball a second before anyone else," he added.

Inzamam played 120 Tests and 378 ODIs for Pakistan.

He finished his career with 20,569 runs across all formats.

The right-handed batsman called time on his career in 2007 and he played his last Test against South Africa in Lahore.

On the other hand, Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

The Rawalpindi Express last played an ODI in 2011 as he played against New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup.

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News Network
May 8,2020

Karachi, May 8: A cricket museum based in India has bought a bat auctioned by Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali to raise funds for the needy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azhar had put two of his precious belongings -- the bat he used to score 302 runs against the West Indies in a Test in 2016 and the jersey he wore during the 2017 Champions Trophy final win over India -- on an online auction to raise funds for the people affected by the deadly disease.

Both the bat and jersey were signed by members of the Pakistan team.

Azhar announced on social media that he had kept a base price of one million each for the bat and jersey and they had sold for 2.2 million.

He confirmed that Blades of Glory Cricket Museum based in Pune bought the bat by making a winning offer of Rs. 1 million for the bat.

Azhar said that the auction of the shirt also generated a lot of interest and Kash Villani, a Pakistani based in California, came up with the highest bid of Rs. 1.1 million for the shirt before the conclusion of the auction.

Another Pakistani based in New Jersey, Jamal Khan also donated Rs. 100,000 for the cause.

"I put two of my closest belongings on auction with base price of 1 million PKR each to support people suffering due to ongoing crisis. Auction starts now and will close on 11:59 PM 05 May, 2020," Azhar had tweeted.

Ali became the first international player to score a test triple century in Day/Night Test when he scored an unbeaten 302 against the West Indies team in UAE in 2016.

"The shirt is from 2017 Champions Trophy which we won, it has the signature of all the players which were present in the squad," Ali said in a video posted on Twitter.

"Both these things are close to my heart but if it can be used in the difficult times for the benefit of the people I will more than happy."

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Agencies
February 13,2020

New Delhi, Feb 13: Sanjiv Chawla, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket team captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, was extradited from the UK on Thursday, Delhi Police said.

The 50-year-old British national, accompanied by a crime branch team from London, reached IGI Airport this morning, a senior officer said.

He is likely to be taken to the crime branch office for questioning, he added.

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