Russia sounds drugs warning

Russia's anti-doping chief has claimed that sport is losing the battle against drugs cheats.

This year has seen a number of high-profile doping cases, including the discovery of the designer steroid THG.

But Nikolai Durmanov, who was appointed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2000, believes the THG scandal is just the tip of the iceberg.

"We have to face up to it, the fight against doping in sport is already lost," said Durmanov.

"There's no chance we can win it - especially with the ongoing development of genetic engineering."

Durmanov, who is an expert on banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin), had never heard of THG before this year.

But his experience in the field has led him to believe that, for top-level athletes, THG is only one of many designer performance enhancers available.

Europe must take stock of the danger on its doorstep Russian anti-doping chief Nikolai Durmanov

"THG or any other steroid derivative is easy to make. Athletes have been using other designer steroids," Durmanov told French sports newspaper L'Equipe.

"But I believe that for those at the very top level these kind of products are already things of the past.

"For example, the trend now is for sophisticated substances which, to explain simply, act directly on certain parts of the brain and prompt the secretion of other substances in the body.

"It makes the international anti-doping authorities, who speak about THG and steroids, look like they're stuck in the 18th century.

"They have to wake up and get with the times."

Durmanov claims the doping situation in Russia is "catastrophic", and could have serious implications for the rest of the world.

"What the West does not realise is that borders no longer exist and the emergence of new forms of doping in Russia will spread easily to other countries," he said.

"When it comes to doping, Russia will become to Europe what Colombia is to the United States.

"In Colombia the farmers have no alternative but to grow coca [for cocaine]. With our sports people, it's the same thing.

"Europe must take stock of the danger on its doorstep - but it must help Russia get out of this situation. We're all in the same boat."