Eight years ago, I found myself on an unforgettable side street in east Berlin outside a modest grey building which gave little indication of the literary horrors inside.
On the first floor today still stands a room which exposes the full and damning effects of a state-sponsored doping programme.
Inside, on either side of the room remain laden folders detailing how an estimated 15,000 youngsters were part of East Germany’s doping programme known as State Plan 14.25, in which athletes as young as eight were put on a drug regimen while being told it was no more than vitamins.
At the time of my visit, on a table by the window were two open folders with handwritten lists. One detailed those who had died prematurely from the effects of the steroids they were given while another shorter list named a second generation – the children of those that doped and the deformities that have resulted in some cases.
Fred Kerley, who won 100m bronze in Paris, is one of the event’s most high-profile participants (Photo: Getty)
