Samaranch claims Sydney Games will be 100% clean

Juan Antonio Samaranch has said the use of two separately-developed detection tests for the banned drug EPO would make the Sydney Olympics 100 per cent clean.

"We decided that there would be EPO tests at Sydney, a combination between the French and Australian system. It's a big success and we can now say the Sydney Olympics will be 100 per cent clean," the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) told reporters during a volleyball federation congress in Seville.

"It's an important decision. We had to take it when we realised, the IOC medical commission and independent scientists, that the test was 100 per cent trustworthy," added Samaranch. The IOC medical commission and a team of seven outside scientists had initially concluded the Australian test for the performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin, or EPO, based on blood sampling, could not be reliably used on its own.

But in conjunction with the French method, which is based on urine sampling, the two were complementary and could be reliably used to detect EPO, it concluded.

The panel's findings will now go before a judicial commission of the IOC to examine whether such tests could pose legal problems. A final decision will be taken by the IOC executive commission at the end of the month.

EPO boosts the body's red blood cell count, enhancing the blood's ability to transport oxygen to the muscles, thereby enhancing muscle performance and increasing stamina.

Organisers of the Sydney Olympics are ready to back the IOC decision.

"We've been working on a contingency for this for three years," Sydney's manager of doping control, Nikki Vance, said yesterday.

"We already have a large proportion of the equipment in place."

The secretary-general of the Australian Olympic Committee, Craig McLatchey, said the approval of an EPO test was a major breakthrough in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs.

"Clearly it now is detectable, if people use, they will be caught," McLatchey said.

"You've got to say that's another nail in the coffin of the drug cheats."

News of the IOC's decision on EPO was welcomed by Australia's top athletes.

However, Ian Thorpe, the outspoken world record holder tipped to win swimming gold, said he would not be totally satisfied until a test for human growth hormone (HgH) was discovered.

"Obviously this is only addressing EPO but it's great," he said.

"It's just the first step in the total eradication of doping but I think everyone would like to see a test for HgH as well."