Athletics: IAAF launches blood tests

Almost 2,000 athletes at the World Athletics Championships will be blood-tested in an anti-doping programme

DAEGU: Almost 2,000 athletes at the World Athletics Championships will be blood-tested in an unprecedented anti-doping programme. For the first time every athlete at a major event will be blood-tested under the same conditions, within the same period, in South Korea from August 18. The results will be used to build ‘biological passports’, assessing each athlete’s normal levels. Former Olympic 400m bronze-medallist Katharine Merry hailed the decision by the sport’s governing body.  “It’ll be interesting to see if athletes withdraw from Daegu with illness or injury due to IAAF introducing all athletes to blood testing,” she said. “London needs to agree to the same strict blood testing procedure as Daegu.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2011.