UK Athletics and the British Olympic Association have confirmed they are investigating after an athlete claimed he faked a PCR test in order to get back to the UK after an international event.

Runner Andrew Butchart, who has been selected for the GB team in Tokyo, reportedly told a podcast he had doctored an old PCR test result when checking in at an airport because his results had not come through in time.

In an episode, which has now been deleted, he told The Sunday Plodcast how “annoying” he found the testing and protocols when travelling abroad to compete.

“Everybody has faked PCR tests, I’m sure, to try to go somewhere, because it’s just so hard,” he said.

The Times reports that the 29-year-old said: “I’m not going to get in trouble from the police or anything like that.”

But now UK Athletics has confirmed to Sky News that the suggestion that Butchart faked a test is being taken “very seriously”.

In a statement it said: “UKA and the BOA are aware of comments made as part of a podcast by a selected athlete today.

“Throughout the pandemic elite sport has been privileged to receive exemptions from various guidelines to enable athletes to continue to train and compete.

“We take very seriously any suggestion that an athlete has not followed these guidelines correctly and broken any COVID-related protocols.

A post shared by Andrew Butchart 🤘🏼🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@andybutchart)

“As a result, this selection will stand subject to further investigation by UK Athletics. No further comment will be made until this investigation is concluded.”

Earlier Butchart, from Dunblane in Scotland, told The Times he had “never faked a test” and later released his own statement to clarify his comments.

“I have never falsified a PCR test and have always complied with the guidelines of the countries I have been travelling in.”

He added that while he had never done it himself, he knew of people who had.

The 5,000m runner competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, where his GB teammate Mo Farah won gold.

The opening ceremony for the delayed Tokyo Games is due to take place on 23 July.

Related posts:

‘Appalling scenes’: Parks forced to close as sunseekers brawl and leave behind piles of rubbish Crime victims have right to know when offender is leaving jail, as new code comes in ‘Battle’ in the channel looms as France threatens to cut off Jersey’s electricity over fishing rights Booster jab rollout ready from the autumn – but which vaccine to give? Meghan wins copyright claim against Mail On Sunday over ‘private’ letter to father UK to send two Royal Navy boats to Jersey over threat of French blockade of island port UK reports 26,476 new daily COVID-19 cases and another 48 deaths ‘I drank a bottle of Lucozade from the Queen’s fridge’ – the day Batman broke into the grounds of Buckingham Palace Thousands of homes still without power after Storm Arwen causes some of the ‘worst’ disruption in 20 years 100,000 critical workers to take daily COVID tests in bid to ease Omicron shortages ‘Very real possibility’ man accused of assaulting Chris Whitty could be jailed Ex-Olympic showjumping coach sexually abused teenage girl over seven-year period, court told