BERLIN • Some Kenyan athletes were warned ahead of unannounced doping tests and a banned runner accused athletics officials of demanding money to hide positive results, German state broadcaster ARD reported yesterday.

ARD and Britain's Sunday Times reported recently that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had not followed up on hundreds of suspicious doping tests.

In the latest report on Kenyan athletes, Frimin Kiplagat Kipchoge, a former runner who works with athletes, said some testers called up athletes ahead of their visits and were willing to reschedule them if they were not available.

According to doping rules, unannounced tests can take place at any time with the athlete having to register his or her daily whereabouts with a central system so as to be available for drug-testing, both in and out of competition.

Banned athlete Ronald Kipchumba, who tested positive for blood-boosting EPO in 2012, told ARD some athletics officials in the country were also demanding money from them to bury positive tests.

The governing body of athletics has been in crisis since the data from thousands of blood samples was leaked to the two media organisations this month.

Three weeks of further leaks and allegations that the IAAF had been soft on dopers overshadowed the run-up to its biennial showpiece, the World Championships, which opened in Beijing last week.

Meanwhile, Mo Farah's coach, Alberto Salazar, has said that he is increasingly confident the United States Anti-Doping Agency's investigation into him will find no evidence of any wrongdoing.

And he insisted Farah, a two-time Olympic champion, would be staying with his Nike Oregon Project training group.

Speaking in Beijing, Salazar said: "You should put your money on me being cleared - it's a winning bet.

"Everything I wrote in my statement back in June will be shown to be correct."

In that 11,750-word statement, he rejected all allegations by the BBC and US news website ProPublica that he violated anti-doping rules.

Salazar said the accusations had left "innocent athletes' careers tarnished with nothing but innuendo, hearsay and rumour".

Neither the BBC nor ProPublica had made any allegations against Farah, who won the 10,000m world title on Saturday, and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part.

He now has two Olympic and four world championship golds.

Farah's medal haul seems certain to rise again when he races in the 5,000m final on Friday.

REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN