Radcliffe feels damaged by doping claims
Marathon world record-holder cleared by IAAF
Paula Radcliffe is delighted to see her name cleared of doping allegations by athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, but the endurance running great believes her reputation has been left unfairly damaged during her fight for vindication.
The IAAF concluded on Friday, amid a rebuttal of claims it had not acted on evidence of widespread drugs cheating, that Britain’s world marathon record holder “had been publicly accused of blood doping based on the gross misinterpretation of raw and incomplete data.”
The Federation added that she “should never have been forced to come out and defend herself against such insinuations”.
Talking to Sky Sports on Friday, the 41-year-old Briton said she hoped that no athlete ever had to endure what she had gone through when she went public with the fact that she was the “high-profile British athlete” mentioned in a newspaper report and a Parliamentary hearing.
“I knew I’d done nothing wrong. I told journalists that at the time,” Radcliffe, a long-standing anti-doping campaigner, said.
“It’s taken this long to get the scientists to come together and put down why the data wasn’t reliable and wasn’t interpreted correctly and they’ve done that now.
“Obviously there’s been damage done to my reputation and to the reputation of the sport as well. That’s why I took the stand I did against this,” she added.
“It was only me being singled out but there are a lot of other innocent, clean athletes who may have produced an atypical value at some point and that’s exactly why it has to be kept so confidential until an expert looks at it and assesses it.
“In the climate of things maybe people think it’s not important right now but it’s important to me and the attacks made on my integrity and my credibility.”
Radcliffe, whose 2003 marathon record of 2hr 15min 25sec remains one of the sport’s most monumental achievements, felt forced to speak out after an MP suggested a British London Marathon winner was “potentially” implicated in blood doping allegations made in the Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, Kenya, facing scrutiny from world anti-doping officials and criticism that it is not doing enough to tackle the problem, has banned seven more athletes for doping offences, raising the total number of Kenyan drug cases in the last three years to 40.
In a statement late on Friday, Athletics Kenya said it had confirmed the sanctions against seven athletes for a range of drug offences.
The list included Emily Chebet, a double world cross-country champion and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist. She was handed a four-year ban after testing positive for a diuretic.
Joyce Zakary, a 400 metre runner, and hurdler Koki Manunga were also given four-year bans. Both tested positive for diuretics at this year’s world championships in Beijing.
The latest list also included four long-distance runners, Agnes Jepkosgei, Bernard Mwendia, Judy Jesire Kimuge and Lilian Moraa Marita. They were each suspended for between two and four years.
Kenya boasts some of the world’s finest middle and long-distance runners but in recent years has been shaken by a spate of failed drug tests. Some athletes have said the government and Athletics Kenya have not taken the issue seriously.
Allegations of corruption among Athletics Kenya chiefs tied to a corporate sponsorship deal, combined with Russia’s recent ban from global athletics, have stirred fears the East African nation could be banned from international track and field.
In total, 43 Kenyans have been suspended for doping with 40 of those in the last three years, including Rita Jeptoo, who won the Boston and Chicago Marathons.