IAAF To Unmask Drugs Cheats After Hundreds Of Samples From 2005 World Athletics Championships Are Re-Tested

 A number of leading athletes who competed at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki are set to be exposed as drug cheats after urine samples that have been held in frozen storage were re-tested by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The IAAF deputy general secretary, Nick Davies, confirmed that “hundreds” of re-tests had been carried out on samples provided at the championships, resulting in several positive cases.

 He promised a “big announcement” in the near future when the identities of the athletes will be revealed, though two Russian women have already been unmasked by the Russian anti-doping agency.

 Olga Kuzenkova, who won gold in the hammer in Helsinki but who has since retired from athletics, faces being stripped of her title while long jumper Tatiana Kotova could forfeit her silver medal.

 Kotova is still competing but has been provisionally suspended pending the outcome of the disciplinary process.

 Davies said other athletes “in the low single figures” had returned positive results but added: “There are no British athletes involved. That’s a guarantee.”

The mass re-test was timed to take place marginally within the eight-year statute of limitations for drug violations laid down by the World Anti-Doping Code.

 “Retesting is something we always said we would do, right from the beginning,” Davies said.

 “We have an eight-year time when we can test and obviously you wait as long as you can.

 People ask, ‘Why are you doing it now? It makes no sense’. Actually, it makes perfect sense because the longer you wait, the more sophisticated the testing will be.”

 The naming of Kuzenkova and Kotova has added to the growing doping scandal in Russia, where 33 track and field athletes are serving drug bans.

British Athletics head coach Peter Eriksson called for an investigation into why so many Russian athletes were taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Culled from www.telegraph.co.uk