The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and World Athletics on Thursday hit back in the dispute over a positive sample from Italian walker Alex Schwazer that an Italian judge last year ruled had been manipulated.
In a joint statement, WADA and the World Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) said reports they had commissioned showed the judge was “wrong” and his theory “implausible”.
Schwazer, the 2008 Olympic champion in the 50km walk, was suspended for eight years just before the 2016 Olympics for testing positive for anabolic steroids, but claimed he was the victim of foul play.
The samples taken on January 1, 2016, had initially given negative results but a second analysis, the following May, revealed traces of doping products.