READING Olympic rower Sam Townsend is among five British athletes whose medical records with the World Anti-Doping Agency have been leaked by computer hackers overnight.

The 30-year-old, who was among the British men's quartet who finished fifth in Rio last month, has had details of his drugs tests made public by the cyber espionage group 'Fancy Bears', which is believed to be from Russia.

Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome are the highest profile of the five Britons whose medical records have been leaked. The others are golfer Charley Hull and rugby sevens player, Heather Fisher. 

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of the athletes.

WADA first fell victim on Tuesday when medical records relating to 'therapeutic use exemptions' known as TUE granted to certain athletes were leaked.

TUEs can be issued to athletes who have an illness or condition which requires the use of medication that is on WADA's prohibited list.

The latest leaks suggest that Rio gold medallist Wiggins, who has never made any secret of the fact he suffers from asthma, has several TUEs for salbutamol, a substance commonly used in an inhaler.

Meanwhile, three-time Tour de France winner Froome has TUEs for prednisolone, a steroid that can be used for chest complaints.

American tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and four-time 2016 gymnastics gold medallist Simone Biles were among those whose information was initially revealed earlier this week.

Reading-born Townsend, whose wife Natasha Page is also an Olympic rower, is a world silver and bronze medallist in the men's four. He is a coach with the Reading University Boat club.

A footballer and cricketer during his school years at Chiltern Edge Secondary School in Sonning Common, Townsend was identified as a future rowing champion at the age of 16 by the GB Rowing Team's Start Programme and joined Reading Rowing Club. He made his Great Britain debut in 2004.

In documents published on the Fancy Bears' website, it lists seven certificates of approval for therapeutic use issued for Townsend from 2007 until 2016 - the last of which was issued in March this year ahead of the Rio Olympics.

All are headed confidential. The one issued on March 16 was for the drug prednisolone to treat an acute flare-up of episcleritis, which is an inflammatory disease which affects the eye.

Two certificates for use of prednisolone were also issued in January and August 2013 before the International Rowing Federation World Cup regattas, as well as the World Rowing Championships in China.  

Prior to that, a prednisolone exemption certificates were issued in September 2010 and February 2011.

The first of these certificates was issued to the Berkshire rower in January 2007 for budesonide and salbutamol, both medications are used as inhalers, and are taken by asthma sufferers. 

Sam Townsend has not commented on the leaks individually. However, British Rowing put out a statement this afternoon (Thursday) and insisted that the Reading Olympian had not broken the rules.

 "Sam has always worked within, and been compliant with, anti-doping rules and British Rowing take a very clear stance on this matter," British Rowing said, explaining how it was working closely with UK Anti-Doping and the British Olympic Association on this matter.

"All rowers who apply for Therapeutic Use Exemptions are subject to a strict and independent process.

"Applications submitted to UKAD are assessed by at least three independent medics and are then referred to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which has further independent oversight of applications."

British Rowing CEO Andy Parkinson insisted that their processes and procedures are robust, compliant with UKAD and WADA rules. 

"TUEs are there to support the clean athlete’s right to compete," he explained. 

"We strongly believe in the fight against doping at all levels of our sport and we are committed to keeping our sport clean through on-going and extensive education programmes.”

WADA confirmed that another leak of "confidential athlete data" had taken place - although it did not identify the athletes affected.

The statement read: "Fancy Bear' [aka Tsar Team (APT28)] have leaked another batch of confidential athlete data from WADA's Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS).

"Similar to the leak that the Agency announced on 13 September, this time the group released the confidential athlete data of 25 athletes, from eight countries, into the public domain.

"The targeted athletes include 10 from the United States, five from Germany, five from Great Britain, one from the Czech Republic, one from Denmark, one from Poland, one from Romania, and one from Russia."

The organisation revealed that hackers had illegally gained access to its anti-doping administration and management system database via an IOC-created account for the Rio Games.

WADA director general Olivier Niggli said: "WADA is very mindful that this criminal attack, which to date has recklessly exposed personal data of 29 athletes, will be very distressing for the athletes targeted and cause apprehension for all athletes that were involved in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"To those athletes that have been impacted, we regret that criminals have attempted to smear your reputations in this way and assure you that we are receiving intelligence and advice from the highest level law enforcement and IT security agencies that we are putting into action.

"Given this intelligence and advice, WADA has no doubt that these ongoing attacks are being carried out in retaliation against the Agency, and the global anti-doping system, because of our independent (Dick) Pound and (Richard) McLaren investigations that exposed state-sponsored doping in Russia.

"We condemn this criminal activity and have asked the Russian Government to do everything in their power to make it stop.

"Continued cyber-attacks emanating from Russia seriously undermine the work that is being carried out to rebuild a compliant anti-doping program in Russia.

"We still believe access to ADAMS was obtained through spear phishing of email accounts, whereby, ADAMS passwords were obtained enabling access to ADAMS account information confined to the Rio 2016 Games.

"We have no reason to believe that other ADAMS data has been compromised.

"WADA is reaching out to NADOs (National Anti-Doping Organisations) and IFs (International Federations) whose athletes are impacted by this new data release so they can provide them with the necessary support."