Pioneering blood controls for all worlds’ athletes
All of the world’s top athletes are set to undergo Tour de
France-style blood controls for the first time prior to the world
athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea, the IAAF announced
Thursday.
Athletics world governing body, which has already adopted the
biological passport programme pioneered by the world cycling
authorities, aims to collect blood samples from all competing athletes
for the first time prior to the August 27 start.
“The IAAF will collect blood samples from ALL athletes taking part in
the IAAF World Championships in Daegu in an unprecedented anti-doping
programme,” the IAAF said in a statement Thursday.
Programme
The IAAF said the programme will be conducted “in close co-operation
with the Lausanne WADA-accredited Anti-Doping Laboratory (LAD) and with
the support of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)”, as well as a number
of “local partners” in Korea.
It will supplement the “regular doping controls that are collected at
a World Championships”, according to the statement.
The IAAF said an approximate total of 500 urine samples will be
collected in and out of competition at the championships.
Cyclists at the Tour de France are traditionally subject to a
pre-race medical during which they must give a blood sample.
However a more convincing deterrant is the biological passport
programme, which allows anti-doping experts to register and chart
biological markers over time, allowing comparison and further scrutiny
if necessary.
It has been adopted by athletics chiefs who, also for the first time,
will now use the results of the biological passport to pursue suspicious
athletes with targeted testing, taking disciplinary action when
necessary.
Doping
“As one of the leading International Sport Federations in the fight
against doping, the IAAF has fully engaged in the implementation of the
Athlete Biological Passport at an early stage since it believes it to be
a key tool in the modern fight against doping,” the IAAF added.
“The focus is not on the detection of prohibited substances or
methods themselves, as for traditional doping tests, but on proving the
use and effect of these substances and methods by way of abnormal
variations in an athlete’s biomarkers that would otherwise be stable.”
In cycling, when a rider’s sample proves suspicious he/she can be
subject to targeted testing.
The IAAF plans to use the same approach: “Suspicious results from the
screening analyses performed on-site could, where appropriate, trigger
follow-up target tests in Daegu in urine (notably for EPO) and/or
further analyses for prohibited substances or prohibited methods in
blood in Lausanne.”
Samples
The blood samples collected before the championships, meanwhile, will
be used to detect banned blood boosters like EPO (erythropoietin) and
illegal blood transfusions for endurance athletes, and steroids and
growth hormones for those involved in the power events.
PARIS, Sunday AFP |
