Drugs and Sport: Pound Urges China to Clean Up Act

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency said yesterday that China was exporting performance-enhancing drugs and said the country had a special responsibility as the host of the next Olympics to step up its anti-doping controls.

WADA chairman Dick Pound said China was among "many countries" that have been identified as sources of "performance-enhancing drugs that have been sent to other countries."

"Much of my visit here in China will be for the purpose of encouraging the proper authorities, in both sport and government, to increase the effort to bring China to the forefront of the fight against doping in sport," Pound said in a speech at Beijing's Sport University.

China is trying hard to shake a reputation for doping among its competitors, a drive that has gained added urgency before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The Chinese cracked down on doping after a string of scandals in the 90s, when 32 of the country's swimmers alone were caught for drug offences, two of them twice. It introduced tough new testing regimes and penalties, with 17 athletes punished in 2004 with fines and competition bans of up to two years.

"An Olympic host country has the special responsibility, both at home and around the world to demonstrate its commitment to doping-free sport," said Pound, who has arrived in China for a four-day visit. "Now is the time for all countries, including China, to make sure that they have put into place programmess necessary to remove doping from sport," he said. Pound was also given an honorary degree by the university and visited the testing labs at the China Doping Control Centre in Beijing.