Thirty-two medal winners at the world’s six top city marathons were among the hundreds of long distance runners with suspicious blood test results revealed in a leak, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The leaked blood tests have jolted the world of international athletics since a German broadcaster and a British newspaper first published reports about them eight days ago.

Last week, the news organisations said the data showed that between 2001 and 2012 a third of Olympic and world championship endurance and middle distance running medals had been won by athletes who, at some point in their careers, had given a suspicious blood test.

The Sunday Times said many of the suspect runners had also won medals in the six most prestigious city marathons: in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York and Tokyo.

Seven of the 24 men’s and women’s winners of the London marathon between 2001 and 2012 were athletes who at some point in their careers had produced a suspicious blood test result, the Sunday Times said. It has not named the athletes.

The London marathon said in a statement yesterday: “We continue to be at the forefront of anti-doping measures for marathon runners as we are determined to make marathon running a safe haven from doping but we cannot do it all on our own and rely heavily on the IAAF.

“We are therefore very concerned by the allegations made in the Sunday Times today (yesterday) and we will be discussing the implications of the allegations with the IAAF.”