DRUG TESTS IN ALL SPORTS WILL START IN OCTOBER

DRUG testing of Irish athletes and other sports participants is
expected to begin in October, chief executive of the Sports Council,
John Treacy, confirmed yesterday.

The introduction of the testing was delayed until the Sports Council
was set up on a statutory basis, giving it the legal power to carry
out the tests.

The testing will not be confined to elite athletes alone but will also
involve other sports people involved in a range of games, including
GAA, soccer and rugby.

The former top athlete said the Council has been put on a statutory
footing since the beginning of last month and it has already put a
tendering process in place for the accredited laboratory which will
carry out the tests.

``We have tendered for the sampling company and we are to finalise
that contract. We have also tendered for the transport company to take
the samples to the laboratory,'' he added.

The volume of tests conducted on Irish athletes would not justify
setting up a special laboratory and we will not be unique in sending
the samples abroad, he pointed out.

He said certain sports are already ready for the testing and the
initial priority will be the sports competitors who are in receipt of
State grants.

The sports federations have to ensure that their Constitutions legally
allow for the testing. Those who fail to comply will get no funds from
the State.

It is envisaged that around 600 urine tests will be carried out within
the first year. Workshops are to be conducted with sports national
governing bodies and athletes in October.

However, it will be a matter for the national government bodies to
determine the level of sanction imposed on those found guilty
suspensions could range from six months to four years.

The Sports Council will have overall power to take action in the form
of withdrawal of funding if it feels that a governing body has failed
in its duty to take sanction against an athlete who has breached the
rules.

The need for better education about banned substances, which can be
innocently found in the system after taking over-the-counter
medications, is seen as crucial for those involved in sports currently
not subject to testing.

The issue of drug testing in sport has come to the fore again with the
withdrawal of Merlene Ottey from the world championships which opened
in Spain over the weekend.

Ottey, who tested positive but has denied taking drugs, has been found
to have nandrolone in her system, the same steroid featured in the
cases of Linford Christie, Dougie Walker and Gary Cadogan. Nandrolone
has featured in so many cases this year that Sport UK, the British
equivalent of the Irish Sports Council, has been forced to launch an
investigation.

There are widespread fears that the spate of positive tests are the
result of athletes taking over-the-counter food supplements containing
substances which can produce metabolites of nandrolone. Dr Brendan
Buckley, chemical pathologist at Mercy Hospital, Cork, said since
out-of-competition testing was introduced in 1988, a substantial
reduction in distances has been achieved by shot putt, javelin and
discus throwers.