Double Olympic champion Mo Farah wants his anti-doping blood test data to be made public, saying he will do what it takes to prove he is a clean athlete.
He is one of eight British athletes defying athletics authorities by asking for details of anti-doping blood test data to be made public, the Sunday Times reported (£).
The newspaper last week said it, along with the German broadcaster ARD/WDR, had seen a database containing more than 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes and revealed ''the extraordinary extent of cheating by athletes at the world's most prestigious events''.
Mo Farah wants his blood test data to be published
It claimed more than 800 athletes had suspicious blood test results which were not followed up by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Some of the results brought some London Marathon winners into question.
The Sunday Times said that the marathon was won seven times in 12 years by athletes who have recorded suspicious blood scores.
Athletes were last week warned against publishing their test results.
British Athletics feared releasing selective data could be "misinterpreted" and may also imply those not publishing their data were "guilty by omission", while The Sunday Times said lawyers for the IAAF had written to the newspaper suggesting athletes were not aware of the implications of putting the data in the public domain.
Farah, whose coach Alberto Salazar was the subject of doping allegations broadcast in a BBC Panorama programme in June, and has since denied any wrongdoing, said the decision to release his results is "a personal one".
"I've always said that I'm happy to do what it takes to prove I'm a clean athlete," he said.
The newspaper, which made clear it is not suggesting that athletes who chose not to release data had recorded suspicious results, reports a total of 20 of Farah's blood test results held on the IAAF's database - covering June 2005 to May 2012 - are within the normal range.
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Farah, 32, said: "It's sad that these allegations have been made at all because they bring down the sport I love, where most of the athletes don't break the rules and work really hard to achieve what they do.
"As someone who is tested all the time, I understand that it's a big job for the authorities to do but it's an important one as everyone - including athletes – needs to be confident that our sport is clean and fair. It is good to see the organisations investigating and I hope they can quickly get to the bottom of it."
Joining Farah in calling for transparency are Jo Pavey, Lisa Dobriskey, Jenny Meadows, Freya Murray, Hatti Archer, Emma Jackson and Andy Baddeley.
Olympic 1500m finalist Baddeley said: "When the public and fans watch us I want them to believe in what they see. Publishing my data is the only thing I have available to me personally that is within my power to help fight for clean sport."
British Athletics chairman Ed Warner said: "We believe that selective publication in this way could be misinterpreted. Also, it might mean that any athlete not publishing their data is somehow guilty by omission.
"We believe it is incumbent on the IAAF to demonstrate that all untoward blood test results from athletes of any nationality have been thoroughly investigated and all appropriate action taken."
London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel has criticised world governing body the IAAF and said race organisers are "very concerned" by the claims.
Some London Marathon winners' results were brought into questionu
In a statement, he said: "We believe there are people in our sport who are cheating and everyone has a part to play to protect those who are not.
"We continue to be at the forefront of anti-doping measures for marathon runners as we are determined to make marathon running a safe haven from doping but we cannot do it all on our own and rely heavily on the IAAF.
"We are therefore very concerned by the allegations made in the Sunday Times today and we will be discussing the implications of the allegations with the IAAF."
Appearing on BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme, Mr Bitel criticised the IAAF, saying that although the Marathon pays for its own drugs testing, it does not administer the program and does not get to see the results, meaning organisers had been unaware of the suspicious blood data.
"We are disappointed," he said. "We're doing more than anybody else to fight doping in our sport. We were the first people to call for blood testing and in fact we're still probably the only event in the world that blood tests all our athletes.
"What this story is really about is the IAAF's failure to take effective action. Those athletes that have been caught... have only been caught because of the tests at the London Marathon. The IAAF needs to do more to stop people from starting (a race) that have blood values that are out of normal range.
"What is concerning is that we're never told these results even though we're paying tens of thousands of pounds to get these athletes tested."
Not all of the tests studied by the Sunday Times were taken at the time of the marathons in question.
According to the newspaper, the athletes involved collected more than £3million in prize money for their results.
London Marathon organisers have vowed to take legal action to recover prize money awarded to Russia's Liliya Shobukhova, whose competitive results as of October 9, 2009 have been disqualified by the IAAF.
Shobukhova finished first and second, respectively, in the 2010 and 2011 London Marathons, and had been the second fastest female marathon runner of all time behind Paula Radcliffe before receiving a two-year doping ban from Russia's athletics federation in 2014.
