Anti-doping body to probe athletics claims

The World Anti-Doping Agency said it is alarmed by “wild allegations” made by two European media outlets of widespread suspicious drug tests in track and field, and is asking an independent body to investigate.

WADA president Craig Reedie said yesterday that he was surprised by the scale of the allegations, including that one-third of medals in endurance races at the Olympics and world championships over a 10-year period were won by athletes who recorded suspicious doping tests.

German broadcaster ARD and The Sunday Times in Britain said they obtained access to the results of 12,000 blood tests from some 5,000 athletes. The files came from the database of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were leaked by a whistleblower, according to the reports.