In the retesting stages, 32 adverse doping cases were discovered, Reuters reports.

They were not aware of any Americans on the list and the BBC reported there were no British athletes.

Sebastian Coe today insisted he stood by his claim that doping allegations levelled against athletics were a “a declaration of war” as one of the experts at the centre of the controversy wrote an open letter to Britain’s double Olympic 1500 metres gold medallist accusing the worldwide Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) of lacking the desire to clean up the sport.

It said those athletes who still are active have been provisionally suspended and that none will be competing at the World Championships in Beijing, which are due to begin on August 22.

The tests were the second for samples from the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki.

Seb Coe has come under fire from an anti-doping expert only days before he hopes to become president of world athletics.

The re-testing took advantage of new technology and the 10-year period now offered under IAAF rules and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code.

If violations are confirmed, the IAAF said it would correct the record books for the 2005 and 2007 world championships, which were held in Osaka, and re-allocate medals as necessary.

Since 2005, the IAAF has stored athletes’ samples from previous championships at the laboratory for future re-analysis.

Harting said: “Dear IAAF, we cannot trust you any more”.

This strategy first revealed six adverse findings from Helsinki, which were announced in March 2013 and to date 9 athletes have been sanctioned following re-testing of samples from various world championships.

Supermum Jo Pavey is set to win her first global medal – eight years after crossing the finish line in despair.

The UK Anti-Doping Agency also criticised the data leak earlier this week, warning that athletes could be falsely accused without analysis of multiple factors such as altitude, illness or even pregnancy, which can all produce natural variations in the biological passport.

“The IAAF does not shy away from the fact that some athletes continue to cheat and defraud their fellow competitors”.

“The systems are in place in both the IAAF and WADA to protect them and to allow us at the same time to protect the clean athletes and weed out the cheats”.