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China reinforces anti-doping education ahead of National Games

2009-07-14 16:30 Xinhuanet

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Every athlete will have to pass an anti-doping knowledge examination in order to get permission into the upcoming National Games, China's sports governing body said here on Tuesday.

China's State General Administration of Sport has launched the anti-doping education campaign in which all Games-bound athletes need take anti-doping classes and examinations, said Jiang Zhixue, anti-doping head in the sports administration.

"Every athlete must pass the test. Otherwise they are not allowed to compete in the games even if they clinch qualifications," Jiang told officials from provincial sport bureaus and sport associations.

Athletes are required to take classes concerning anti-doping knowledge in respective provincial teams and take a test whose pass score is set at 80.

"The athletes can take an open-book test," said Yuan Hong, head of Chinese Olympic Committee anti-doping commission.

"Our goal is to let them know (something about doping), so even if they merely read through the test, they collect some knowledge," she said.

The quadrennial National Games, a Chinese version of the Olympic Games, this time will be staged in Shandong Province from Oct. 11-23 and have 360 events from 33 sports.

Jiang admitted that it is a huge challenge to ensure about 9,000 athletes to compete in clean Games in the same year when the People's Republic of China celebrates its 60th anniversary of founding.

"So education as a preventive measure is extremely important in anti-doping," he said.

In addition, every athlete needs to take an oath against doping ahead of the Games.

In last Games in 2005, there was only one positive case but an explosive one as Chinese top runner Sun Yingjie was found using banned substance steroid.

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