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British doctor alleges he doped 150 sports stars, including EPL players
LONDON: UK Anti-Doping is concerned by a Sunday Times report in which a British doctor alleged he had prescribed banned performance-enhancing drugs to 150 sportsmen, including several Premier League footballers.
The paper said Mark Bonar claimed his clients included an England cricketer, British Tour de France cyclists, a British boxing champion, tennis players and martial arts competitors as well as footballers.
In the past six years he has treated more than 150 sportsmen from the UK and abroad with banned substances such as erythropoietin (EPO), steroids and human growth hormone, and the performance improvements were "phenomenal", the report added.
Neither the newspaper nor Reuters was able to substantiate the claims made by the doctor.
The Sunday Times front page.Credit: Sunday Times
UKAD chief executive Nicole Sapstead said the body had been aware of allegations against Bonar after a sportsperson approached them two years ago but had not been able to act upon them because he was not affiliated to any particular sport.
"Under current legislation, UKAD has the power only to investigate athletes and entourage (including medics) who are themselves governed by a sport," she said.
UKAD had considered informing the General Medical Council, which overseas medical practitioners in Britain, but decided the evidence they had was insufficient for such a referral, Sapstead added.
UKAD chairman David Kenworthy said an independent review would be conducted into the issues raised by the report.
Allegations: Dr Mark Bonar.Credit: Twitter
"They will be asked to look at the way the information supplied by the sportsperson was handled and whether proper procedures were followed," he said.
"They will also be asked to make any recommendations to improve the way in which intelligence is dealt with in the future so that UKAD can be as effective as possible in keeping sport clean."
The news is likely to cast a further shadow on the sporting world ahead of the Rio Olympics.
Russia was suspended from international track and field last year following a report exposing widespread cheating and corruption among their athletes.
The country faces a ban from the Olympics unless Russia can prove to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the IAAF governing body that it has met a series of conditions regarding its anti-doping operations.
Russia's best male gymnast could miss the Olympics after he became the latest to test positive for the banned substance meldonium.
Nikolai Kuksenkov withdrew from the national championships after being informed of the failed doping test on Saturday, a day after winning the individual all-around title.
Kuksenkov, a former European champion, had not taken meldonium since August, Russia team coach Valentina Rodionenko told the Russian Ves Sport agency.
"As yet, no one knows how long a period is needed for meldonium to leave the body," she said.
"It's a kind of wild, wrong situation, which needs to be sorted out with joint effort."
Kuksenkov competed for Ukraine under the name Mykola Kuksenkov before taking Russian nationality in 2013.
He won European championship gold in the team all-around in 2014, and gold in the same event at last year's inaugural European Games.
Kuksenkov's is the first known doping case in gymnastics involving meldonium.
More than 20 other Russians across all sports have tested positive for meldonium, which was banned on January 1, with at least 123 cases worldwide.
Also, Russian Pavel Kulikov, an Olympic hopeful in skeleton, said in a statement he failed a test for meldonium.
Kulikov finished 12th at the world championships in Austria in February.
Reuters, AP