Agent exposed by the Telegraph faces Athletics Integrity Unit doping investigation

An athletics agent caught offering to supply and help administer performance-enhancing drugs in a Telegraph investigation last December has been named as one of 109 people in the sport facing disciplinary action for doping offences.

Robert Wagner, an Austrian agent who has worked with world 100m champion Justin Gatlin, was caught on camera boasting that he could obtain human growth hormone and testosterone for cash.

Footage also shows Wagner claiming the use of banned substances in athletics is still widespread.

“There is so much room for blackmailing and dirty games,” Wagner said to reporters who were posing as film producers looking for someone to help them make a film about athletics. “Every sport. Whatever does money does corruption.”

Wagner also boasted that he had represented some of the biggest names in the sport, including Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter stripped of his 1988 Olympic 100m gold for doping, and high-profile British athletes including Colin Jackson and Dame Kelly Holmes. There is no suggestion that these other athletes have ever taken any banned substances. 

Wagner later said he had made up his claims in order to impress reporters and insisted he had played along “to get them hooked”. However, he has been provisionally suspended while the AIU investigates.

The case is one of more than 100 revealed by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Friday in an effort to increase transparency in anti-doping cases in athletics.

Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion and world record-holder Ruth Jebet is one of the highest profile names included in the list, confirming reports earlier this year that the Kenyan-born Bahraini failed a test for the banned blood-booster EPO.

Also on the list is Olympic and three-time world 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop, and fellow Kenyan Violah Jepchumba, who has the third fastest half marathon time in history. Both athletes also tested positive for EPO.

The AIU’s disciplinary list contains winners of 85 Olympic and world championship medals and almost half of them involve Russian athletes.

Established last year as a response to the sport’s corruption and doping crisis, the AIU has now committed to a new public disclosure policy, which will see basic details of any disciplinary action it takes revealed in public.

Previously, the sport’s governing body had only disclosed cases when the entire process, including any appeal, was over.

Brett Clothier, AIU head, said: “We are only at the beginning of our mission to restore the reputation of athletics and there is a lot more work to be done.

“The current and recent caseload reflects the challenge we face as a sport, but also the fact we are willing to take on that challenge and drive cheats out of athletics.”