By sportswriters Ma Xiangfei and Meng Na
BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Spanish cyclist Maria
Isabel Moreno became the first athlete to test positive during the official
Olympic doping control period when her expulsion was announced by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) here on Monday.
Moreno, entering for women's individual time trial,
tested positive for the blood-boosting EPO or erythropoietin, IOC communications
director Giselle Davies said.
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IOC communications director Giselle
Davies announces that Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno was tested
positive during the official Olympic doping control period at a news
conference in Beijing, China, Aug. 11, 2008. (Xinhuanet/Chen
Jingchao)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
"The case that has just come to light this morning
can confirm the disciplinary commission's decision regarding Maria Isabel
Moreno. Her test is positive for EPO," announced Davies.
The 27-year-old was tested on July 31 in the Olympic
Village and left China in the evening on the same day before learning the
result, Davies told reporters at the daily IOC-BOCOG press conference.
The cyclist's accreditation was revoked and she was
expelled from the ongoing Games which opened on Friday. IOC asked the
International Cycling Federation to carry out further sanctions.
"The disciplinary commission this morning has ruled
that she will be excluded from the Games. Her accreditation has been cancelled
and withdrawn," Davies said.
"We hope that cycling federation the UCI follows up
with any other area of this case as it can which is outside of the IOC remits,
outside of the Games time process," she said.
Sun Weide, speaking on behalf of the BOCOG, Monday
afternoon told Xinhua that doping is a kind of "cancer" for sports and violates
the fair competition principle.
"BOCOG will continue to closely cooperate with IOC
and WADA and make common endeavors to host a clean Olympic Games," he added.
EFFECTIVE MEASURES
Chen Zhiyu, BOCOG official responsible for preparing
for the Games doping control program and implementation under the guidance of
the IOC, said the doping case proved that the program was effective although he
does hope a Games free of cheating.
"Our ideal is no doping cases at any Games but now we
can only hope that effective measures can catch them," he said. "Our system is
working to ensure a clean Games."
Chen and his team recruited a total of 917 staff for
the Games to work at 34 doping control stations to collect samples, which will
be tested for about 200 banned substances at the state-of-art anti-doping lab
which China built in time for the Games. The host invested about 50 million yuan
(about 7.35 million U.S. dollars) in purchasing and renting new equipments and
organized a team of 150 scientists and experts home and abroad to work in the
lab.
The IOC pledged to make the Beijing Games a "clean"
one and planned a historic-high 4500 tests through the Olympic period which
started on July 27 and will run through to August 24. It is a 25 percent
increase from the 3,600 tests in Athens where 26 doping cases were reported.
For the first time at a Games, athletes must provide
whereabouts information for where they are residing, training and competing from
July 27 to August 24. And an athlete can be tested twice a day.
A new test kit that can better track the trace of
human growth hormone (HGH) was introduced into the Games, which experts expected
to finally discover HGH users.
Harsh punishments posed as a bigger deterrance to
those who intend to cheat.
The IOC decided that as of July 1 this year, anyone
banned for a doping offence for more than six months may not participate in any
capacity at the summer or winter Games immediately following the date of expiry
of such suspension. The revised World Anti-Doping Code extended the ban for the
first-time offender from two years to four years.
"The IOC means business in stamping out for those who
are not playing by the rules," Davies said.
All these tough measures raised the awareness,
leading to large scale pre-Games tests in many countries and effectively help
clean the Games.
"The program run by the IOC is an effective one. Many
countries have learned it better to ensure their athletes who are cheating do
not come to Beijing rather than have them caught in Beijing,"
WADA director general David Howman said. "That's a
very good momentum we hope to continue to the future."
India withdrew weightlifter Monika Devi from the
Games on Wednesday after seven top Russian female track and field athletes were
accused of manipulating their urine samples. The IAAF provisionally suspended
them on July 31.
Bulgarian weightlifting association confirmed on July
30 that 11 top weighlifters withdrew from the Games after positive tests.
Eleven members of the Greek national team tested
positive in March for the anabolic steroid methyltrienolone and banned for two
years before another one was caught in July. Swimmer Yiannis Drymonakos and
rower Yiannis Tsamis also were forced out of the Olympic team for doping
offences.
CLEAN HOST
The Chinese capital is hoping to host a clean Games
and China has striving to send a clean team.
The Chinese anti-doping officials Monday refused to
reveal more of their preventive measures but "clean losers are preferred over
tainted gold medals" had been Chinese delegation's motto for the Games.
China's sports chief Liu Peng called on
zero-tolerance on drug cheats and ordered more rigorous punishments.
Before the opening of the Village, China conducted
nearly 7000 tests, over 5000 of them falling on those possible Olympians, and
eight positive cases were reported.
Among the offenders, national team athletes, men's
top backstroker Ouyang Kunpeng and wrestler Luo Meng were banned for life along
with their coaches.
In April, China launched a nationwide inspection to
tighten the management of performance-enhancing drug suppliers and
manufacturers.
The inspection, conducted by eight government
departments, specially focused on Olympic host cities and regions with a
concentrated chemical industry.
