Kohl confirms manager bribed anti-doping labs

Bernhard Kohl has confirmed reports that his former manager Stefan Matschiner bribed anti-doping laboratories to analyze samples in order to determine how best to avoid a positive doping control.

Matschiner "had samples analysed so that we knew how far we could go and still not be caught,“ Kohl told Austrian newspaper Kurier.

Kohl said he had two samples tested, one for EPO and one for testosterone. "Then I knew: I can inject so-and-so much of each substance."

Matschiner is a former track athlete and was still heavily involved in the track and field scene. In connection with the track world championships starting this weekend in Berlin, he told the German television broadcaster ARD that he had bribed lab workers. He allegedly paid from 150 to 500 Euros per sample.

In addition, Matschiner said that these forbidden tests were done in labs in central Europe. According to Kurier, labs in that region are in Prague, Czech Republic; Cologne and Kreischa, Germany; Lausanne, Switzerland; and Seibersdorf, Austria. Kurier reported that the Austrian lab was not involved, and Kohl said that he did not know which lab tested his samples.

The illegally tested samples were designed to help the athletes determine the dosages for "micro-dosing". As Kohl explained: "You know exactly which dose you need in the evening so that the stuff won't be traceable the next morning."

Matschiner, 34, faces further investigation by the Vienna, Austria, Sonderkommission Doping (Special Commission for Doping).

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