Drug cheats may slip through net

Jacques Rogge: More work has to be done

The introduction of blood tests at the Olympics in Sydney may not weed out all the cheats, a senior official has warned.

The International Olympic Committee has approved blood and urine tests to detect athletes using the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO and out of competition testing will start at the beginning of September.

But Jacques Rogge, a senior IOC executive committee member, said there was still no test to prove if athletes were using another allegedly common performance enhancer, human growth hormones (HgH).

Rogge is confident a fool-proof test will be found but it willl not be in operation until after the Games.

"We are where we were with EPO a month ago. The problem is it is much harder to validate the test of HgH," he said.

"More work has to be done. It is very difficult.".

Werner Reiterer: Allegations

Another problem has also come to light with claims that some Australian athletes have been evading random drug tests by training in remote parts of the country where doping authorities cannot afford to chase them.

An independent report commissioned by the Australian Sports Drugs Agency claimed some athletes had even set up telephone alerts to avoid the arrival of testing units.

"It's a legitimate issue," said Simon Allatson, head of Athletics Australia.

"Random anti-doping programs rely on being able to get fairly instantaneous access to athletes so if that part of the process is falling down it compromises the whole program."

The report was commissioned after Australia's former top discus thrower Werner Reiterer alleged there was widespread drug use by Australia's Olympic competitors and high-ranking officials turned a blind-eye to his own drug-taking.

But the improved testing procedures may have a more immediate impact.

There are always reasons why people may save themselves the embarrassment of a positive test and develop a reason for not competing and not coming to Australia

  Australian team doctor Brian Sando

The Australian team doctor Brian Sando believes some drug cheats will pull out of the Games rather than risk being caught and publicly disgraced.

"There may be some people who suddenly develop serious injuries that are going to prevent them from competing - and no doctor can tell you they've seen the patient," he said.

"There are always reasons why people may save themselves the embarrassment of a positive test and develop a reason for not competing and not coming to Australia.

"They can only do two things - run the risk of being caught or come off the drug. If they get caught, that's a far greater penalty than competing and not doing quite as well as they thought they might have."