Jenny Meadows: British athletes 'want level playing field' amid doping claims

Doping allegations against fellow athletes have made one British star question whether she wants to remain in the sport, she has told ITV News.

Jenny Meadows said British athletes want to compete on a "level playing field" and that facing people suspected of doping was "a hard pill to swallow".

The 34 year old 800m runner has lost lottery funding and prize money after being beaten by dopers, putting her future in the sport at risk. She has even been denied her moment of glory on the top step of the podium because of cheating.

She told ITV News that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) should be given whatever resources they need to investigate alleged cheating.

Her comments come after a recent report in the Sunday Times which claimed as many as a third of Olympic and world championships medals - including 55 golds - have been won by athletes with allegedly suspicious doping test results.

The newspaper has also reported that seven London Marathon winners in a 12-year period recorded suspicious blood scores.

Meadows, who won 800m bronze in the 2009 World Championships, said: "When other people don't have the same morals it does take some of the enjoyment out of it, it does make you question whether you want to carry on and it does have massive implications on funding.

"I've lost lottery funding, I've lost prize money, I've lost sponsorship all because of these people and it's really made it hard for me to carry on having a future in the sport, just to survive and pay bills and live as a full-time athlete."

She urged fans not to tar all athletes with the same brush and said she and fellow Brits have been as transparent as possible.

Meadows said countries which have less rigorous testing regimes need to step up so everyone "plays by the same rules".

"A lot of the British athletes do suspect people of doping," she said.

"We're obviously really really want the IAAF and WADA to find these people to ensure that we do compete on a level playing field.

"It's really annoying to know that you're working hard and you think other people are cheating and taking shortcuts.

"There's a lot of races at the back of my mind where I ran a certain race and thought how did I get beat in that or how did I not make the final and you do suspect quite a few athletes have been doping."

Meadows had her silver medal upgraded to gold from the 2011 European Indoor Championships after Yevgeniya Zinurova was one of three Russian athletes banned for doping.

She will be lining up in the 800m at the World Championships in Beijing in a couple of weeks against potential dopers, something she said was hard to swallow.

She said: "I do think there will be athletes in my event, the women's 800m, who won't be clean athletes...which is not a very nice thing to have to deal with."