MONTREAL, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- A World Anti-Doping Agency study revealed that current drug protocols catch only a small percentage of athletes who use banned substances.
More than 2,000 track and field athletes participated in the anonymous study.
The results indicated that more than 29 percent of the athletes at the 2011 World Championships and 45 percent of them at the 2011 Pan-Arab Games said they doped in the past year but less than 2 percent of drug tests examined by WADA in 2010 were positive, The New York Times reported.
The researchers who completed the study said WADA told them to wait the publish the results until the International Association of Athletics Federations reviewed them.
Nick Davies, a spokesman for the IAAF, said the study was not complete for publication because it largely relies on athletes' opinions.
WADA should instead combine the study with drug-testing results for a more comprehensive study, Davies said.
But the researchers, who spoke to the Times under a condition of anonymity, said their work is important enough to stand alone.
