Former Ukad chiefs not questioned in probe into British Cycling claims

UK Anti-doping failed to interview its former leadership team during an investigation into “potential wrongdoing by individuals in both British Cycling and Ukad” in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

The World Anti-doping Agency on Tuesday heavily criticised a Ukadled probe – codenamed “Operation Blackout” – into allegations that the national anti-doping organisation and British Cycling had concealed the use of banned drugs.

That followed a Wada investigation – codenamed “Operation Echo” – into the same claims, which found Ukad had failed to search laptops for “relevant emails” cited in a pair of anonymous letters that triggered the latter’s 2018 inquiry.

Telegraph Sport can disclose Ukad also did not interview Andy Parkinson, its founding chief executive who left in 2014, or Graham Arthur, its founding legal director who left in 2017, during its investigation.

Wada did speak to both men during its own inquiry, which was launched in March, but they were unable to recall, a decade on, the exact events under investigation.

Ukad’s failure to contact Parkinson and Arthur – the latter of whose emails suggest was central to those events – was criticised last night by former staff at the agency.

One acknowledged it had been “a terrible mistake”, while another said: “The absence of any contact with senior executive people who were in the organisation at the time is odd. I can’t think of a good reason not to do that.”

Ukad declined to comment after announcing it was “commissioning an independent external review of its 2018 Operation Blackout”. Nicole Sapstead, who succeeded Parkinson as chief executive and left this year to join the International Tennis Integrity Agency, declined to respond to questions from The Daily Telegraph.

The Wada probe found no evidence anyone at Ukad concealed doping and there is no suggestion anyone who has worked there has ever done so.

The letters Ukad received in 2018 claimed it had allowed British Cycling to collect samples from elite riders and screen them for the androgen and anabolic steroid, nandrolone.

In a statement on Tuesday, Wada said that Operation Echo had established wrongdoing. “Contrary to the rules laid down by the World Anti-doping Code and the relevant international standard, the samples were collected by British Cycling staff rather than doping control officers, analysed by a non-wadaaccredited laboratory, and provided by the athletes on the basis that Ukad would never know the results,” it wrote. “Operation Echo also established that at least one Ukad employee was aware of the study and that the samples could be collected and analysed at a non-wada-accredited laboratory.”

Wada said it was “concerned by the failure” of Operation Blackout to search British Cycling laptops for “relevant emails” after the letters claimed the devices held evidence. “Had Operation Blackout conducted this search, it would have discovered the same emails found by Operation Echo in 2021.”

Despite the findings, neither Ukad nor British Cycling face any punishment. Gunter Younger, director of Wada’s Intelligence and Investigations department, said: “Operation Echo makes no corrective recommendations as those involved in the events of 2011 are no longer employed by Ukad, and Ukad has already put safeguards in place to avoid a repeat occurrence.”

In a statement, Ukad said it welcomed the investigation’s findings, adding that “these matters would not take place today”. “The report from Wada makes clear the results of the testing carried out by British Cycling were all negative and notes the negative results from Ukad’s own extensive testing of British Cycling athletes at that time,” Ukad said.

British Cycling said Wada’s findings clearly “attached no fault” to the organisation or the unnamed riders involved in the study.