Tests for the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO may force some cheats to pull out of the Sydney Games, Australian Olympic officials predicted yesterday.
Australian Swimming president Terry Gathercole and Olympic team doctor Brian Sando hailed moves by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to use two separately-developed French and Australian detection tests - one involving urine, the other blood.
"There may be some people who suddenly develop serious injuries that are going to prevent them from competing - and no doctor can tell you they've seen the patient," said Sando.
"There are always reasons why people may save themselves the embarrassment of a positive test and develop a reason for not competing and not coming to Australia.
"I can imagine that if they feel they've been obtaining great advantage from these drugs they're going to be very, very distressed.
"They can only do two things - run the risk of being caught or come off the drug. If they get caught, that's a far greater penalty than competing and not doing quite as well as they thought they would.
"I hope they will be targeting the sports and the events which would benefit from it (EPO)," he said.
"I believe anyone who breaks an Olympic or world record . . . in either a heat or a semi-final in those identifiable events should be automatically tested."
IOC executive board member Jacques Rogge has said that anyone who refused the test would be considered guilty of doping.
Gathercole said: "This is a very, very powerful deterrent to those who are cheating and about to defraud their fellow competitors."
The IOC announced on Monday that between 300 and 700 tests would be carried out between September 2nd, the day the athletes' village opens, and the closing ceremony on October 1st.
Sydney Olympics supremo Michael Knight made a shock last-minute management reshuffle yesterday when he demoted chief executive Sandy Hollway just 17 days before the start of the Olympics.
Knight, New South Wales State's Olympics Minister, put David Richmond, head of the Olympic Coordination Authority (OCA), into Hollway's job as director general of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG).
The OCA is a New South Wales State government body in charge of the construction and maintenance of Olympic venues. SOCOG deals with the organisation and sport.
SOCOG's two deputy chief executives now report to Richmond, rather than Hollway. The two deputy CEOs are Michael Eyers, who was brought in early this year to take over ticketing, and Jim Sloman, who is in charge of day to day operations of the Games as chief operating officer.
Romanian triple-jump champion Rodica Mateescu will not be competing in the Olympics after failing a drug test.
The IAAF confirmed yesterday in a written letter to the Romanian Athletics Federation (FRA) that 1997 world triple-jump runner-up Mateescu returned a positive sample on April 24th.
Meanwhile, the Romanian Swimming Federation (FRN) is appealing the International Swimming Federation's ban on Cezar Badita, who tested positive for nandralone in May.
"Badita was tested twice in 24 hours: the first test was positive, while the second was negative. This is impossible, because nandralone is not a substance that disappears in 24 hours," said FRN secretary general Dan Ionescu.
The Olympic football tournament is facing a crisis, with Canberra in danger of losing its right to host games because of the poor condition of the pitch at Bruce Stadium.
"There's a very real chance if the pitch is unsatisfactory it has to be moved," said Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates.
Grass that had been grown in tropical Cairns went into shock from Canberra's cold weather after it was laid on August 8th.
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