Special Report: Yearender 2008         

   　By Sportswriter Ma Xiangfei

    BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- The year of 2008 has seen some victories and heightened awareness in the fight against doping, driven by the Beijing Olympic Games.

    BEIJING OLYMPICS

    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) well publicized their "zero tolerance" stance against doping and announced a series of tough punishments and preventive measures in a bid to scare off the potential cheaters at the Beijing Games.

    These measures included rejecting athletes from participating next Olympics if they are banned more than six months at the current one and storing the samples for eight years in case any new testing method is developed.

    The Beijing Olympics recorded the highest ever number of tests - 4,770 with nine turned positive at present, far lower than what was expected before the Games. Twenty-six positive cases from 3,600 tests were discovered at the Athens Olympics four years ago.

    The surprisingly small number was attributed to a thorough screening by the international federations, national Olympic committees and anti-doping agencies in the months leading up to the Games.

    Over 30 Games-bound athletes were caught before they set their feet on Beijing.

    The result has been an encouragement to all anti-doping workers.

    "More sports have started developing no-notice out-of-competition testing programs. Governments have become more and more involved on many different levels, including supporting robust national test programs, " said World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) media manager Frederic Donze.

    After the Games, the IOC is ready to honor its commitment by retesting from next January 500 samples from Beijing after new methods were approved by WADA to detect a new generation of erythropoietin (EPO) known as CERA and insulin.

    IOC president Jacques Rogge expected more positive cases turning up from the Beijing Games samples with retesting going on. He put the final number at around 15.

    Tour de France, whose reputation was tainted by doping scandals in recent years, saw four riders - Italians Leonardo Piepoli and Riccardo Ricco, German Stefan Schumacher and Austrian Bernhard Kohl - exposed of using the new blood booster drug after they initiated in applied the new method.

    It was reported that the manufacturer tipped off WADA about thenew drug and the scientists were quick to develop the testing methods.