London - Paula Radcliffe has been cleared of allegations of doping by the IAAF, which said there was “no basis whatsoever for the insinuations made against her”.
Radcliffe was effectively named by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee as being the leading British athlete who had given three suspicious readings in the database of 15 000 blood readings obtained from the IAAF earlier this year.
But the IAAF insisted that all three samples had valid explanations for elevated “off-scores” - indicators of anomalies in an athlete's blood passport - and that the allegations had been based on “inaccurate and unfounded scientific and legal argument”.
The IAAF report said that “the circumstances in which Ms Radcliffe came to be publicly accused are truly shocking” and that the marathon world record holder “was hounded remorselessly in the media for several weeks until she felt she had no option but to go public in her own defence”.
Meanwhile, the UK Athletics chairman, Ed Warner, has said Sebastian Coe was right to end his paid role with kit manufacturer Nike.
Under increasing pressure, Coe gave up his £100,000-a-year deal as a Nike ambassador despite remaining adamant there was no conflict of interest with his role as International Association of Athletics Federations president.
Warner told The Independent: “It appears to be a great opportunity to put a lot of distraction and noise to one side at a time when the IAAF desperately needs to get the sport to a healthy state.
“Whether it was right or wrong for Seb to continue with the Nike role is not one for me but for him and his council colleagues. But it was simply becoming the top of the news agenda for an organisation facing far bigger issues.”
The Independent