None of the 28, the majority of whom are retired according to the IAAF, were named.
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Those that are still active in the sport have been provisionally suspended, the IAAF announced, adding that none of the athletes concerned will be competing at the IAAF World Championship in Beijing later this month.
Two other athletes, an Indian discus thrower and Ukrainian hammer thrower, tested positive during the championships.
“The re-evaluation of those examples continues to be continuing for a while, and was started prior to the newest accusations made from the IAAF by (German broadcaster) the ARD and Also The Sunday Times“, the IAAF mentioned.
The IAAF stated re-screening of the 2005 examples had nothing related to large doping in athletics’ current allegations.
“The IAAF does not shy away from the fact that some athletes continue to cheat and defraud their fellow competitors”, the federation said in its statement.
It is understood that no British athletes are under suspicion. Media outlets in Germany in Britain, citing leaked test results from an IAAF database, asserted that blood doping was rampant in the sport and the IAAF was not doing enough to stop it. Their samples, which were retested, returned what the organisation described in its statement as “adverse findings”, reported the BBC.
Beginning in 2005, athletes’ samples from previous championships have been stored at the laboratory and they were used in the re-analysis.
These revelations come in the wake of a report in the Sunday Times, which obtained classified IAAF data from an anonymous whistleblower regarding suspicious blood test data from several athletes. “The IAAF is committed to use every means at its disposal within the World Anti-Doping Code to root out the cheats, however long it takes”.
“We are at the cutting edge of the fight against doping”.
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Belarusian’s Nadzeya Ostapchuk and Ivan Tsikhan lost the gold medals they won in the shot put and hammer respectively. Russian Federation had the second most with 18.
