More than 180 reports of doping were made to UK Anti-Doping by whistleblowers in 2023 in what it called a “significant jump” from previous years.

Ukad’s confidential reporting scheme, called Protect Your Sport, received 184 reports across 25 sports.

Of those, 68 concerned national-level athletes.

In 2023 Ukad handed out 24 anti-doping sanctions, 46% of which arose from such intelligence reports.

Ukad said the growth in reports is a sign of the trust in Protect Your Sport.

The initiative, which launched in November 2020, resulted in 10 reports that year, 75 in 2021 and 110 in 2022.

Mario Theophanous, Ukad’s head of intelligence and investigations, said: “We are delighted that year on year more reports are coming in to Ukad.

“By releasing our Protect Your Sport reporting numbers today, we hope to encourage others to come forward.

“We want people to know that they are not alone when it comes to voicing their concerns around doping in sport, and that reporting to Ukad is both safe, easy and the right thing to do.”