The California laboratory at the center of a doping scandal threatening track and field athletes said on Friday that no "positive test" results for steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs were found at the lab.
And in a statement, Robert Holley, the lawyer for BALCO Laboratories head Victor Conte, added that reports of positive test results for athletes "are nothing more than a fabrication."
Holley's comment came as Kelli White, a sprinter who won the 100 and 200 meters titles at the 2003 world track championships, was banned for two years after admitting to the United States Anti-Doping Agency that she had taken prohibited performance drugs, including undetectable steroids and the blood booster erythropoietin, or EPO.
Evidence of White's doping was obtained, in part, by USADA from documents turned over by the U.S. Justice Department following an investigation into BALCO.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that investigators had found records indicating that Conte had sent blood or urine samples of athletes to another lab, Quest Diagnostics, and that this was among the evidence gathered by federal agents.
The San Francisco Chronicle said these private test results, once confiscated, were among the evidence subpoenaed by a Senate committee and given over to the anti-doping agency.
Conte and three other people were indicted by a San Francisco federal grand jury on charges of distributing illegal steroids and human growth hormones. All four men have pleaded innocent.
"There were no positive test results for steroids or any other performance enhancing drugs found at BALCO for any of the U.S. track and field athletes," said attorney Holley.
