THE International Association of Athletics Federations yesterday welcomed "a clear and unequivocal statement by the World Anti-Doping Agency concerning the recent accusations against the veracity" of the IAAF anti-doping programme.
A German TV station and The Sunday Times face legal action by the word body who are incensed that data they published four years ago was portrayed as "a scoop". Athletes whom it was claimed had escaped punishment had in fact been banned by the IAAF, caught by their biological passport programme.
Athletes who were the subject of leaked data had failed no tests for performance-enhancing drugs.
WADA's Scottish president, Sir Craig Reedie, said his organisation was “confident that the IAAF, which has formally agreed to full cooperation with the Commission with respect to its inquiries, is equally committed” to anti-doping.
The IAAF will send its full database with pre-2009 data to WADA and will co-operate with them on analysis of its contents.
WADA said that: "To suggest or imply doping with respect to any athlete whose data is contained within the database is, at the very least, irresponsible, and potentially libellous.”
David Howman, WADA director general confirmed: “A portion of the data within the database pre-dates the Athlete Biological Passport which was introduced in 2009. This data could not possibly be considered doping, legally or otherwise.”
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