Paula Radcliffe delighted but still angry after being cleared of doping by IAAF

Radcliffe, who still holds the women's marathon world record, felt attacked earlier this year after claims were made that several anomalous results had been found in her doping tests.

The now-retired athlete had made public her blood data to prove her innocence, and now the IAAF has formally cleared her of any wrongdoing according to an exclusive Sky News report.

The IAAF will report to British authorities next week about the allegations made by Germany's ARD and the Sunday Times newspaper, and will say that the allegations were based on "inaccurate and unfounded scientific and legal argument".

ARD and the Sunday Times based their claims on analysis of several thousand doping samples provided over an 11-year period, with two blood testing experts engaged by them claiming that there were hundreds of anomalous results which justified further investiagtion.

Radcliffe was not directly named in the articles, but admitted that she was one of the athletes in question after it became clear from other details that she was involved.

The IAAF have found that there is "no basis whatsoever for the insinuations made against her" and cleared her name completely.

"It should never have come to this," Radcliffe told Sky News.

"This case is a good example, then, of how dangerous it is to insinuate that an athlete has doped based simply on raw and incomplete data in the leaked database," the IAAF report apparently reads.

"Ms Radcliffe should never have been forced to come out and defend herself against such insinuations."

Sky journalist Paul Kelso also reported that the IAAF is set to describe claims that it ignored doping as "inaccurate and unfounded" when it makes a report to British Parliament.

Radcliffe, one of the darlings of the British sporting world for a decade, denied all the allegations from the start.