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Jamaica worried about many drugs tests
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by René | August 14, 2008 at 03:21 pm
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By Karolos GrohmannBEIJING (Reuters) - Jamaican athletes have undergone an "extremely unusual" number of doping tests since arriving in Beijing for the Olympic Games, potentially harming their performance, the team's chef de mission said on Wednesday.
More than 32 blood and urine tests have been conducted on Jamaican athletes in the past five days alone, a number that has alarmed team officials.
"We are concerned that this could have a serious effect on our athletes," Don Anderson told Reuters. "We feel there has been an exceedingly long list of tests and we find this extremely unusual."
Anyone else have any ideas on this? It does seem excessive.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 15:36 on August 14th, 2008
Just the Jamaican athletes? That does seem strange. Hopefully now they've done it once, the officials can leave them alone to compete.
at 16:55 on August 14th, 2008
Very strange. At first I thought this was supposed to be funny, but it's a very serious situation for the team.
at 04:38 on August 15th, 2008
Their star sprinter complains that he's been tested 4 times and that they took lots of blood, though he did volunteer for anti-dopin program.
at 05:23 on August 15th, 2008
Maybe they think 'Jamaica', and then Bob Marley, Rastafarian, and Ganga! tho that is a stretch. But it is no joke.
at 10:14 on August 15th, 2008
Before the Olympics the IOC said that they were going to perform "targeted" doping controls where they had reasonable suspicion of illegal practices. I'm not sure how they determined their "reasonable suspicion". While it does seem excessive, the 100 meter sprint final is a marquis event for the Olympics and they need to do all they can to ensure fair competition. Which to me would suggest that all 100 meter sprinters should be subject to more targeted testing.
Think back to the 1988 Games in Seoul where we now know without doubt that every sprinter in the 100 meter final was using steroids. That includes Carl Lewis, who got the gold after Ben Johnson tested positive, and Linford Christie.
With the US's dubious record lately (including several admitted positives over the past year) you'd think those athletes would be veritable pin cushions by now.
at 12:33 on August 15th, 2008
They may suspect a new masking technique.