Topic: News: New drug test has cheats on the run

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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New drug test has drug cheats on the run

Almost the entire Greek Olympic weightlifting team tested positive for drugs last week and a few more Olympic heroes will be twitching uncomfortably with the news that the World Anti-Doping Authority have ratified an effective test for human growth hormone.

Eleven out of 14 of the Greek team showed evidence of banned substances after WADA swooped in a surprise test and now track and field athletes may feel some heat after WADA's breakthrough on growth hormone.

The International Association of Athletics' Federations have been storing the blood samples of athletes collected over the past few years for just this eventuality and now plan to go back to the vaults and test them for the drug. Perhaps more importantly, out-of-competition tests will begin imminently so, for the first time ever, athletes will not be able to use HGH with impunity in the run-up to the Olympics.

Self-confessed doper Marion Jones, currently in jail for perjury, used human growth hormone to prepare for her three gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, according to Victor Conte, the head of the Balco laboratory that supplied drugs to athletes, including Jones.

The previous test for HGH was applied only during the Athens Olympics rather than in the crucial period building up to the Games, giving any self-respecting drug cheat plenty of time to flush all trace of HGH from their systems.