Starting in January, around 500 blood samples from Beijing will be retested. (Getty Images)The IOC confirms that around 500 drug samples collected from athletes at the Beijing Olympics are to be retested for Cera, a new version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO, and insulin.
Around 400 blood samples will be retested for Cera at the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) accredited laboratories in Lausanne and Paris; insulin tests will be conducted on some 100 samples in Cologne, Germany where a urine test was recently perfected by the WADA lab.
The testing program, which will mainly target athletes involved in endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, starts in January; the first results are expected by March.
The IOC announced in October that it would be retesting some samples from Beijing following the introduction of a new Cera test. The decision came after Tour De France officials revealed that three riders had tested positive for the banned drug in retests.
David Howman, WADA's director general, has said that he anticipates the IOC's retesting regime for Cera will unearth some drug cheats who have so far gone undetected.
David Howman, WADA's director general, says he expects the retests to unearth some drug cheats who have so far escaped notice.(Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images)As part of its zero-tolerance policy against doping, the IOC stores samples collected during the Olympics for eight years, allowing it to analyze samples retroactively should fully validated tests to detect new substances or methods become available.
Almost 5,000 doping tests were conducted in Beijing in the IOC's biggest ever crackdown on drug cheats at an Olympics. The tests included 3,801 urine and 969 blood tests. Urine tests included 817 EPO tests and blood tests covered 471 human growth hormone tests.
Six athletes were sanctioned for doping offenses at the Beijing Olympics. Three other cases are still pending. They involve Belarusian hammer throwers Vadim Devyatovskiy and Ivan Tsikhan, who tested positive for testosterone, and the case of Polish canoeist Adam Seroczynski, who tested positive for Clenbuterol.
With reporting from Mark Bisson.
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