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
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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January 15,2020

Jan 15: Australia openers David Warner and Aaron Finch both struck superb centuries to complement their bowlers’ inspired display as the touring side handed out a 10-wicket thrashing to India in the opening one-day international in Mumbai.

India, world-ranked No 2 in ODIs, suffered a middle-order collapse on their way to being bundled out for 255 in the final over of their innings after Australia captain Finch won the toss and opted to field in the first of the three-match series.

Warner and Finch then smashed the Indian bowlers to all corners of the ground, picking up boundaries seemingly at will to chase down the target with 74 balls to spare at the Wankhede Stadium.

Left-handed Warner successfully used the decision review system twice to overturn the umpire’s decision on his way to his 18th ODI century, hitting three sixes and 17 fours in his unbeaten knock of 128, from 112 balls. Finch completed his 16th century in the format, his unbeaten innings 110 from 114 features two sixes and 13 fours.

Earlier, Australia’s left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who made his ODI debut in India 10 years ago, picked up three wickets to set up Australia’s victory. He struck the first blow with the new ball when he sent back Rohit Sharma for 10.

India managed to recover from that early loss through a second-wicket stand of 121 between opener Shikhar Dhawan, who top-scored for the hosts with 74, and KL Rahul. However left-arm spinner Ashton Agar broke the stand by dismissing Rahul for 47 before Agar caught Dhawan off Pat Cummins in the next over.

The hosts were hoping for a solid innings from captain Virat Kohli, who batted a position lower than his usual No 3 spot to accommodate Rahul, to get them out of trouble. However, he lasted only 14 balls, hitting leg-spinner Adam Zampa for a six before offering a return catch to the bowler on the very next delivery to be out for 16.

Starc then returned to the attack, removing Shreyas Iyer cheaply as India lost four wickets for 30 runs to be reduced to 164 for five. Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja then fell just short of a half-century partnership, before the remaining four wickets falling for 42 runs, with Cummins and fast bowler Kane Richardson picking up two wickets apiece for Australia.

To compound India’s woes, wicketkeeper Pant suffered a concussion after being hit on his helmet by a short-pitched delivery from Cummins. The Indian cricket board said Pant, who did not come out to keep wicket and was replaced behind the stumps by Rahul, was under observation. The two sides will meet in Rajkot for the second ODI on Friday.

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May 15,2020

New Delhi, May 15: Former England skipper David Gower feels Sourav Ganguly has the right "political skills" to lead the ICC one day and he has already displayed that as BCCI president, which is a "far tougher job".

The elegant left-hander is very impressed with Ganguly's leadership abilities and believes that he has what it takes to head the global body in the future.

"One thing I have learnt over the years is that if you are going to run BCCI, you need to be many, many things. Having a reputation like he (Ganguly) has is a very good start, but you need to be a very deft politician.

"You need to have control of a million different things," Gower said ahead of "Q20", a unique chat show for the fans presented by 'GloFans'.

Gower reckons being president of the BCCI is the toughest job imaginable in world cricket.

"And of course, you need to be responsible for a game that is followed by, I mean, should we say a billion people here in India," he said.

"We all know about the immense following for cricket in India. So it is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. Sourav has the toughest task imaginable in charge of BCCI, but so far I would say the signs are very good.

"He has listened, given his own opinion and has pulled strings gently," he said.

Political skills are a must in administration and that's where Gower finds his fellow left-hander ticking all the boxes.

"He is a very, very good man and has those political skills. He has the right attitude and can keep things together and will do good job. And if you do a good job as BCCI chief in the future, who knows?

"But I would actually say the more important job, to be honest, is running BCCI. Being head of ICC is an honour, there is a lot that can be done by ICC, but actually look at the rankings, look at where the power is heading up. BCCI is definitely the bigger job," he said.

On the cricketing front, Gower believes World Test Championship has given the format much-needed context.

"The idea of this World Test Championship has come about for one very simple reason that people are worried about the survival of Tests. Back in the seventies, eighties, I don't think we needed context to be fair.

"Test cricket was very much more obviously the most important format and if there was anything to be judged by, it was the performances in Test matches both as an individual and as a team.

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