IOC carries out 1,500 tests so far as one positive case revealed
12/8/2008 17:06
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said today they have carried out
some 1,500 doping tests since the opening of the Olympic Village.
IOC
director of communications Giselle Davies said around 1,500 tests covered urine
and blood samples and during pre- and post-competition in the largest ever
Olympic doping control program.
Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno tomorrow
became the first athlete to test positive and be kicked out of the Games during
the Olympic doping control period, which started on July 27 through to the
closing of the Games on August 24.
The 27-year-old, entered for individual
time trial, was tested on July 31 in the Olympic Village and left China later
that day before learning the result.
The IOC decided Moreno, tested positive
for the blood-boosting hormone EPO or erythropoietin, should be excluded from
the Games and announced her disqualification yesterday.
The IOC pledged to
make the Beijing Games a "clean" one and planned a historic-high 4,500 tests
through the Olympic period. It is a 25 percent increase from the 3,600 tests in
Athens where 26 doping cases were reported.
Top five finishers of an
individual event will be tested after competition as random and target testing
further enhance the chances of catching drug cheats.
For the first time at a
Games, athletes must provide whereabouts information for where they are
residing, training and competing from July 27 to August 24. And an athlete can
be tested twice a day.
A new test kit that can better track the trace of
human growth hormone (HGH) was introduced into the Games, which experts expected
to finally discover HGH users.
The IOC decided that as of July 1 this year,
anyone banned for a doping offence for more than six months may not participate
in any capacity at the summer or winter Games immediately following the date of
expiry of such suspension. The revised World Anti-Doping Code extended the ban
for the first-time offender from two years to four years.
Xinhua
|
