OLYMPICS CHIEF'S CALL TO 'GO SOFT' ON DRUGS ATTACKED

LEADING figures in British athletics yesterday reacted in anger and
astonishment to calls by the president of the International Olympics
Committee (IOC) for a relaxation in doping restrictions.

Juan Antonio Samaranch ignited the latest drugs controversy during a
Spanish newspaper interview when he demanded some "harmless"
performance-enhancing drugs be legalised in sport.

He justified the comment - which comes in the middle of the Tour de
France drug scandal - on the basis that only drugs which damaged
health needed to be banned. The directors of Spain's top two cycling
teams backed his calls yesterday.

However, the idea received almost blanket condemnation from British
experts in the field, where the prevailing demand has been for
stricter controls.

Even as the row intensified, it was announced that two of the biggest
names in American athletics - the shot-putter Randy Barnes and
sprinter Dennis Mitchell - had been suspended indefinitely after
testing positive for drugs.

The controversy prompted the IOC to announce a special conference in
Lausanne in Janunary to review the fight against doping in sport.
British Olympic Association (BOA) officials welcomed the move, and
pledged to play a major part.

Craig Reedie, chairman of the BOA, said last night: "We do not condone
the use of performance-enhancing drugs, whether they are harmful to an
athlete's health or otherwise, within British Olympic sport.

"We are seeking further clarification from the president of the IOC
regarding the context in which his comments were made."

David Moorcroft, the former athlete who is chief executive of UK
Athletics 98. said: "As soon as we give in to the notion that anything
goes then the concept of fair competition has no meaning."

Sir Arthur Gold, a lifelong anti-doping campaigner and the president
of the Amateur Athletic Association, called Mr Samaranch's comments
"unwise". "To use drugs is to cheat, whether they damage your health
or not," he said. "No-one knows for certain which drugs are dangerous
to the health, but if they enhance a person's performance it is
blatant cheating.

Speaking in an interview with the Spanish daily paper 'El Mundo' on
Sunday, Mr Samaranch said: "As it stands, all those substances
prohibited by the medical commission of the International Olympic
Committee are considered as doping substances. For me, this is not
sufficient. Drug-taking is anything which firstly damages the health
of the sportsman and, secondly, artificially improves his
performance.

"If something produces just the second effect, then for me it's not
drug-taking. If it produces the first, then yes."

He later reiterated: "The list of products must he reduced
drastically. Anything that doesn't adversely affect the health of the
athlete, for me, isn't doping."

Yesterday, Eusebio Unzue, the Banesto cycling team director,
said he was completely in agreement with Mr Samaranch: "I'm
also pleased that he has chosen this time to speak out. It's
very important because our sport needs to recapture its
long-held good image,"

Meanwhile, a loading British distance runner, Jon Brown, said the
banned performance-enhancing drug EPO - at the centre of the Tour de
France doping scandal which has seen the authorities detain several
riders - was as rife in his own sport as in the cycling world.

"Two years ago [the use of EPO] was virtually non-existent in distance
running, but I think now you have got some main players operating on
the stuff," he was quoted as saying in a newspaper.

"Once you go down that road - the same as cycling - sport is not real

sport and the barriers are unlimited."

The former British middle-distance world record holders Steve Ovett
and Steve Cram also spoke out against Mr Samaranch's views.

Mr Ovett said Mr Samaranch wanted "to throw in the towel" in the fight
against drugs. "How do you define dangerous?" he asked. "ls it when
someone keels over and dies?"

Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"