Australia to beef up doping fight ahead of Olympics

Australia will step up efforts in the fight against drug cheats as part of IOC moves ahead of next year's London Olympics, the Australian Olympic Committee said. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has confirmed that 5,000 tests will be conducted in conjunction with the London Games and there will be a significant increase in the number of pre-competition tests. AOC president John Coates, who is also on the IOC executive board, on Saturday said a laboratory near London would analyse the samples and the tests would be supervised by a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory. Coates said the IOC would work with government agencies to ensure an essential flow of information in the fight against doping. He said the campaign would continue long after next year's Games with rigorous re-testing of the samples collected from athletes competing in London. "The IOC will continue re-testing stored samples after the Games," Coates said in a statement from the IOC Congress in Durban. Coates said he would be lobbying Australian Sports Minister Mark Arbib on his return home to ensure that the Australian Sports Anti Doping Agency (ASADA) had the resources for the challenges ahead. "I will be speaking to Minister Arbib to ensure that ASADA remains focused on weeding out the cheats in the lead up to the London Olympics," he said. "In Australia it is crucial that ASADA remains ready and resourced to re-test the samples they are already storing as new forms of analysis and information from customs, and other government agencies increasingly becomes available". Currently samples are stored for eight years in Australia.