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Official vows to fight hard against doping cheats at City Games

2011-10-17 15:36 Xinhuanet

NANCHANG, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The seventh Chinese City Games, the last multi-sport games to be held in China ahead of the London Olympics, will see a hard battle against doping cheats which have marred the previous edition, a doping control official said here on Saturday.

Yuan Hong, who is in charge of doping control in the Games' organizing committee, said that the committee will attach great importance to doping control by launching extensive drug tests.

"To ensure clean and fair Games, we will conduct a total of 1,190 tests during the competitions, 10 percent up over the last edition, and the blood test will be included," Yuan said.

"The local food and drug administrations will also strictly inspect the pharmacy market to keep the performance-enhancing substances away from the market," she added.

The City Games have attracted a total of 6,034 young athletes from 57 delegations. Yuan said the teenagers must know about doping before the possible cheats happen.

"Preventing is much easier than curing. So we carry out an anti-doping program in the athletes' village, where the teenagers learn knowledge of doping by answering questions on computer. They can get little gifts if they pass, so the program works well," Yuan said.

Last City Games held in central China's Wuhan in 2007 was tainted by two doping cases. A cyclist from Yinchuan, a city of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Northwest China, and a Wushu athlete from Shijiazhuang, a city of Hebei Province, tested positive.

Liu Peng, director of the State General Administration of Sports, has earlier said that the City Games will adopt a zero tolerance approach against the doping cheats.

The seventh City Games will be held from Oct. 16-25.

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