IAAF to Test All Athletes at World Championships in Unprecedented Event

The International Association of Athletics Foundation (IAAF) have announced they will be taking collect blood samples from all athletes taking part in the IAAF World Championships in Daegu in an unprecedented anti-doping programme.

It will be the first time that a heterogeneous population of nearly 2000 elite athletes competing in a major sports event will be blood tested under the same optimal conditions, medic within the same time period.

This programme will be managed in close co-operation with the Lausanne WADA-accredited Anti-Doping Laboratory (LAD) and with the support of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a number of local partners including the Daegu Local Organising Committee, capsule the Korean Anti-Doping Agency and the Doping Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.

The samples will mainly be collected at a purpose-built doping control station located in the Athlete’s village starting from 18 August 2011. The samples will be analysed by the LAD on-site in Daegu for a first haematological screening analysis and after the end of the Championships in Lausanne for further analyses.

The analyses by the LAD will focus on measuring relevant parameters (biomarkers) for individual profiling purposes within the framework of the Athlete Biological Passport.

If there are any suspicious results from the on-site screenings then this will trigger follow up tests and if the sample still comes back with a banned substance then they would be in full violation of the anti doping laws.

The new blood testing programme in Daegu is being organized alongside the regular doping controls that are collected at a World Championships. It is thought in Daegu approximately 500 urine sample shall be collected in and out of competition.