IOC will crackdown on drug testing – president Rogge

LAUSANNE, July 20, 2008 (AFP) - International Olympic Committee (IOC) boss Jacques Rogge has promised a drug-testing crackdown at the Beijing Games in a bid to banish memories of cheat Marion Jones. "We had 26 positive tests in Athens, so classic tests work.



But if we look at statistics most athletes are tested out of competition.

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Rogge said that the banned drug Erythropoietin (EPO) and human growth hormone (HGH) - notoriously difficult to detect - would be a significant challenge in Beijing as in Athens in 2004.

"The window of detection is not large, but that is the case for EPO.

But there are always those who will take EPO... It is true that are ways to make yourself more or less clean for a competition, ways of doping that we cannot detect.







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Rogge, whose mandate at IOC finishes next year, said he was confident that the testing in Beijing will be effective.

"We will do targeted testing ... We will not work country by country but sport by sport," said Rogge.

"In each one, experts will follow the evolution of the performance, the blood parameters in the sports that they perform in. We will also look at whose who deviate from their norm.

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But Rogge said he wanted to av