Drugs group urges improved
Olympic tests

The World Anti-Doping Agency recommended ways of improving drug testing at Olympic Games on Tuesday and narrowed down a list of candidate cities for its headquarters.

A report by WADA observers who were sent to the Sydney Games suggested a range of measures -- from more tests on medallists in team events to tighter checks on locks on refrigerators meant to safeguard urine or blood samples.

It said the current level of drug tests, on about a quarter of Olympic athletes, seemed a maximum under current systems.

"I think the report identifies some fine-tuning areas where there might be some confusion but...it was pretty supportive of the way things are done," WADA chairman Dick Pound said during a meeting of WADA delegates from 34 nations in Oslo.

The drug agency, which had a first meeting in January at its temporary headquarters in Lausanne, also drew up a shortlist of candidate cities for a permanent base -- Vienna, Bonn, Lille, Montreal, Lausanne and Stockholm.

It eliminated another four -- Barcelona, Madrid, Nice and Singapore -- saying they did not have the full backing of their national governments or Olympic Committees.

WADA will review candidate cities next year, aiming to find a new home by January 1, 2002. Pound, a Montreal lawyer and International Olympic Committee member, said WADA was "surprised and delighted" by the number of candidates.

The United States reiterated calls for WADA to quit Lausanne in Switzerland, which is also the IOC's base. The IOC has committed $25 million to WADA.

"Many of us feel quite strongly that it should not be in Lausanne from a practical point of the independence of WADA from the IOC," White House drugs control chief Barry McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey added that Washington favoured Montreal.

"There's a good argument for reducing the impression that international competition is a European game...so Montreal's status is healthy for WADA," he said.

The observers' report on the Sydney Olympics, where seven athletes tested positive for drugs, recommended that independent observers should always be present at future Games to dispel any suspicion that tests could be unfair.

It also recommended clearer rules for dealing with positive dope tests, including quickly notifying competitors and delegates, and for ensuring impartial disciplinary tribunals.

Some 2,700 athletes of about 10,000 participants at Sydney were tested before and during the Olympics. "This is probably the maximum capacity under the present arrangements" between organisers and the IOC, it said.

WADA, which is campaigning to define a single list of banned drugs in sports and wants better testing, plans 2,500 drugs tests for athletes out of competition in 2000 and aims to raise the number to about 3,500 in 2001.