2008 Olympics: About 25 per cent more doping tests will be conducted at the 2008 Beijing Olympics than were carried out at the Athens Games in 2004, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have announced.
More than 3,500 tests were conducted at the Athens Games with 22 athletes either breaching regulations or testing positive for banned substances, including Greece's top two sprinters and three athletics gold medallists.
The Athens total was itself a 25 per cent rise on the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, where 11 athletes were caught cheating.
"As part of its zero tolerance approach to fighting doping, the number of tests will be significantly increased," said an IOC statement released at the end of the coordination commission's inspection of preparations for the Beijing Games.
"Final numbers are to be confirmed but are expected to be around 4,500, a 25 per cent increase on Athens 2004."
Meanwhile, the swimming finals and much of the gymnastics will be held in the morning,. The competition schedule for the Games had finally been agreed by the IOC's executive board "after a thorough consultation process".
The team and all-round individual events in the gymnastics are set for the morning, although the individual apparatus events will be contested in evening sessions.
All the track and field finals will take place in the evening with the customary exception of the marathon. The proposed morning shift for the swimming finals caused uproar when the news was leaked earlier this year, with some swimmers accusing the IOC of putting the interests of US broadcaster NBC before the needs of the athletes.
"I would like to deny that we are doing the bidding of certain broadcasters," IOC coordination commission chairman Hein Verbruggen said. "It has always been like this, the schedule is always the result of a thorough consultation process and what comes out of this is a compromise. For example, in Seoul in 1988, many events were held in the morning.
"The impression being given is that this is a special case, this is not true."