Electronic Telegraph
Tuesday 12 September 2000
Mihir Bose
TWENTY per cent of competitors in the women's marathon will be on EPO
according to Susan Hobson, the Australian marathon runner.
Her allegations were made last night on ABC's Four Corner's programme, which
also launched a scathing attack on the EPO test being conducted by the
International Olympic Committee.
So far the new EPO tests have not revealed any positives, with around 100
conducted since the programme began 10 days ago.
According to Robin Parisotto, one of the scientists on the Australian EPO
2000 project, the IOC have chosen the wrong Australian model of blood tests
and it is possible athletes could still take EPO, take part in the Games,
give blood and get away with it.
Last month in Lausanne the IOC approved a combined Australian and French
test to detect EPO, a hormone which is found naturally in the human body but
which, when injected artificially, can boost performance by up to 15 per
cent and is particularly useful for endurance sports such as long-distance
running, cycling and swimming.
However the blood tests the Australians use to detect EPO have two models.
There is an 'on' model, which can detect EPO taken within five days of the
test. But there is also an 'off' model, which can detect EPO taken up to 28
days before the test.
The Australians presented both models and the IOC opted for the on model,
combined with a urine test devised by the French. The IOC decision means the
Australian test is used as a screen to indicate whether an athlete has EPO
and the French test is used as a final proof.
Parisotto told the programme that he was disappointed the IOC did not use
the off model, as an athlete could come to Sydney having taken EPO confident
that it would not detect anything taken more than five days before the test.
Indeed, Parisotto suggested that in some cases EPO taken more than two days
before the test may not be detectable.
The IOC rejected the criticism and quoted the leader of the Australian test
team, Drew Clarke, as saying the IOC decision "was prudent and we fully
accept and support the protocol that is now in operation".
However this did not deal with Parisotto's critcisms and he is a member of
the team. Privately the team accept that the IOC decision to go for the on
model means that some athletes could escape EPO.
However, one source said: "In conducting the blood tests we will also look
for EPO use for longer than five days but we will not take any action on it.
If we find anything suspicious it will be sent on to the national
federations to keep a watch on this athlete. A person using EPO will be a
marked person and they will catch up with him or her sooner or later."
Athletes face out-of-competition drug testing as late as the evening before
their events, a leading anti-doping official said on Monday.
"We do not want to test the athletes on the day of their events but we will
test athletes up to the evening prior to the day of competition," IOC
medical commission chief Patrick Schamasch said.
Eamonn Condon
WWW.RunnersGoal.com
