Bookmark Jamaica-Gleaner.com
Go-Jamaica Gleaner Classifieds Discover Jamaica Youth Link Jamaica
Business Directory Go Shopping inns of jamaica Local Communities

Home
Lead Stories
News
Business
Sport
Commentary
Letters
Entertainment
Profiles in Medicine
Careers
More News
Power 106 News
The Star
Financial Gleaner
Overseas News
The Voice (UK)
Communities
Hospitality Jamaica
Google
Web
Jamaica- gleaner.com

Archives
2005 - Now (HTML)
1834 - Now (PDF)
Services
Find a Jamaican
Careers
Library
Power 106FM
Weather
Subscriptions
News by E-mail
Newsletter
Print Subscriptions
Interactive
Chat
Dating & Love
Event Guide
Free Email
Guestbook
ScreenSavers
Submit a Letter
Video
WebCam
About Us
Advertising
Gleaner Company
Contact Us
Other News
Stabroek News



No rush for Olympic dope tests
published: Wednesday | November 26, 2008

LONDON (AP):

ATHLETES ANXIOUS about the retesting of their doping samples from the Beijing Olympics will be kept hanging for a while longer.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it will be several more weeks before scientists start re-analysing the 1,000 or so samples, and the final results might not be announced for months.

"We will probably start after Christmas and have the results maybe at the end of the first quarter of 2009," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch told The Associated Press, yesterday.

Recheck of samples

The IOC announced on October 8 that it would recheck samples from Beijing to look for traces of CERA, a new version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO.

No test for CERA was available in Beijing, but a new blood test developed by the French Anti-Doping Agency has exposed four Tour de France riders for using the blood-boosting substance.

Schamasch said the Beijing samples will also be checked for insulin, a hormone which can serve as an anabolic agent to enhance an athlete's performance.

Recent reliable testing

The IOC banned the use of insulin by non-diabetic athletes in 1998, but a reliable test was only recently perfected by the lab in Cologne, Germany, Schamasch said.

The IOC freezes and stores samples from the Olympics for eight years, leaving open the possibility to retest them when new detection methods are devised. Any athletes caught by new tests can be sanctioned retrospectively and be stripped of their results and medals.

Ensuring validity

The Beijing samples have been sent to the lab in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they are undergoing a process to ensure they are valid. Officials are deciding exactly how many to analyse and which methods to use.

"About 1,000 altogether," Schamasch said. "We want to do this intelligently. We will work on everything we think is relevant and realistic."

Schamasch said most of the samples would likely be analysed in Lausanne, but some could also be shipped to the Cologne lab for the insulin tests.

The IOC hopes to analyse remaining 'A' samples because testing of back-up 'B' samples would require the presence of the athletes or their representatives.

Expensive

The tests are expensive. Schamasch estimated the cost of a single CERA test at US$250 and US$200 for insulin.

The IOC conducted more than 5,000 doping tests during the Beijing Olympics, including nearly 1,000 blood screenings.

Six athletes tested positive during the Beijing Games.


More Sport



Print this Page

Letters to the Editor

Most Popular Stories





© Copyright 1997-2008 Gleaner Company Ltd.
Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Letters to the Editor | Suggestions | Add our RSS feed
Home - Jamaica Gleaner