The Hindu : Sport : IAAF to increase testing

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Tuesday, Dec 07, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

IAAF to increase testing

HELSINKI, DEC. 6. The IAAF will increase testing and funding as well as cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency in its bid to detect and stem the use of new performance-enhancing substances, the sport's governing body said on Sunday.

``New demands will have to be met. We will allocate more resources, more manpower and more expertise ... for the daily conduct of the anti-doping activities of the IAAF office,'' the head of the IAAF's doping commission, Arne Ljungqvist, said.

``The principle has been taken to set some money aside for research ... primarily for joint funding of interesting research projects with WADA ... and more money for testing,'' Ljungqvist said, but added that no decisions had yet been made on how much money will be spent.

The IAAF will add up to five top posts to its anti-doping task force, which was established following the Athens Olympics earlier this year and will launch ``an expanded testing program for new substances and new methodology'' at the next World Championships in August in Helsinki, he told reporters.

Ljungqvist's statements came at the end of a two-day IAAF meeting in the Finnish capital which will host the 2005 Athletics World Championships.

Next year's meet will have the strictest anti-doping measures to date at an IAAF event, he said.

About 2,000 athletes are expected in Helsinki, where every fourth competitor will be tested — about 100 more than at the previous World Championships in Paris in 2003.

On Saturday, the IAAF Council overwhelmingly chose Berlin to stage the 2009 World Championships. It was the third try by the German city — where the IAAF was founded in 1913 — to stage the event after losing attempts for the 1991 and 2005 games. Local media reported that in a first round of voting, Berlin won 24 of the 26 votes cast by the council. — AP

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