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SPORTS> About Doha
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Drugs in forefront of Doha with Olympics less than 2 years away
(AP)
Updated: 2006-11-28 13:38 Drug cheats at the Asian Games can't say they weren't warned, even more so than usual.
Organizers of the 15th regional games which attract more than 10,000 athletes in 39 sports went to great lengths in February to publicize the fact that they held a training workshop, not for the volunteers or competition managers, but for the doping control officers who will conduct more than 1,200 random drug tests, including blood tests for the first time. That's an increase of 40 percent since the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. In 2004 at the Athens Olympics, more than 3,500 doping tests were conducted, a figure expected to rise by 1,000 at Beijing. On Wednesday, two days before Friday's opening ceremonies, the World Anti-Doping Agency will hold a news conference in the Qatar capital to outline its drug-testing plans for the games, which end December 15. The reasons are clear _ the Asian Games are the last major multi-sports event before the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And, more importantly, athletes from Asia have been among the worst doping offenders. Chinese swimmers were labeled cheats after more than 30 were caught for drug offenses during the 1990s. Seven tested positive for steroids in 1994 and were stripped of their Asian Games medals. |
