Women’s world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe was “hounded remorselessly” over doping allegations that proved wrong, world athletics’ governing body said Friday.
“The circumstances in which Ms Radcliffe came to be publicly accused are truly shocking,” the IAAF said as it used the British runner’s case to defend its own handling of accusations of widespread doping.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said Radcliffe “was hounded remorselessly in the media for several weeks until she felt she had no option but to go public in her own defence”.
“She has been publicly accused of blood doping based on the gross misinterpretation of raw and incomplete data.”
An IAAF report said all of the tests which media reports described as suspicious were “entirely innocent”.
The IAAF particularly targeted Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper and German broadcaster ARD for criticism.
Radcliffe’s tests were among hundreds the media said were suspicious and that the IAAF had not properly followed up on — something track and field’s governing body vehemently denied.
Radcliffe, who retired after this year’s London Marathon, made a public announcement denying cheating after a British parliamentary committee member made comments that appeared to implicate her.
A vocal campaigner against drug cheats during her career, Radcliffe allowed the tests to be made public.
She has always admitted to fluctuations in her blood test scores, but said they were down to entirely innocent reasons and she had been cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).