Sport 08-09-2000 Olympic Committee`s Drug Test Hitlist who: Organisers of the Sydney Olympic Games what: Have a "hitlist" of suspected EPO drug users where: Sydney when: Yesterday snippet: "The International Olympic Committee has drawn up a hit-list of athletes to be drug tested in the build-up to the Sydney Games," reveals Express Sport Live today. "The athletes, all involved in endurance sports, will be tested for the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO which increases the supply of oxygen in the blood." The news follows the decision of the Chinese team earlier this week to withdraw 27 athletes after several of them had failed drug tests. And yesterday, says The Telegraph`s Mihir Bose, "Australian customs officials seized human growth hormone from Sergei Voymov, a coach with the 58-strong Uzbekistan team". "We have taken more steps than any previous organising committee to introduce the most comprehensive anti-doping framework in Games history," says Australian Olympic Committee secretary general Craig McLatchey, who admits that a drug-free Games would be impossible. About twenty EPO tests, most of them random, have already taken place says The Independent`s Kathy Marks, but "special attention was paid to endurance athletes such as cyclists, swimmers and long-distance runners". The IOC has confirmed that "any athlete refusing to give a blood sample will be considered guilty of doping". [... more]

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