Paula Radcliffe says the involvement of teenagers as young as 16 in the recent Turkish doping scandal amounts to “child abuse” and countries that fail to protect their young athletes should be thrown out of the World Championships. The marathon world-record holder, who delivered a hard-hitting anti-doping presentation to the International Association of Athletics Federations at its annual Congress on Wednesday, said she was shocked by the news that, within the past week, the Turkish athletics federation had handed out two-year bans to 40 of its athletes. Of the 40, nine were teenagers, including a female hammer thrower as young as 16. Most, if not all, are understood to have tested positive for anabolic steroids in raids carried out in Turkey in May. “I would say that is abuse,” Radcliffe said. “Some of those athletes are 16 or 17. This is steroids and I think there needs to be some sort of sanction imposed on that country and something done about protecting the young athletes in that country because I don’t believe there’s a whole lot of choice.” more
