Lee Naylor, chairwoman of the Australian athletes' commission, yesterday urged all Australian track and field athletes to donate blood for drug testing. Speaking at a news conference at Sydney's Olympic Stadium ahead of the three-day national championships which start today, the 400 runner said: "I would hope that 100 per ecnt of the track and field athletes would take up the opportunity.

"But I'm also not naive enough to say track and field is not completely drug-free. If I thought that there were no drugs in sport, I wouldn't be asking for this initiative."

Asked what her reaction would be if some of her teammates chose not to take part, she said: "To be perfectly honest, I guess we probably would have to be suspicious."

Talk about banned performance-enhancing drugs is likely to dominate the build-up to the Sydney Olympics which open on September 15th. Some scientists believe that testing blood as well as urine could help to catch more cheats.

Former Australian Olympic discus competitor Werner Reiterer rocked the sport in Australia in July when he said some of Australia's top athletes were using a banned human growth hormone. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) immediately announced a full inquiry, but Reiterer then refused to name names to an independent investigator, so the inquiry was cancelled.

Athletics Australia (AA) chief executive Simon Allatson said the blood samples, collected in a combined effort with the AOC, the Australian Sports Drug Agency and the Australian Sports Commission, would be held in storage until IOC-approved tests for the use of hormonal drugs were in place.