Sport

Dope tests in Britain have gone to the dogs

Drugs in Sport: Competition athletes have been known to blame their trainers after testing positive for drugs

James Meikle
Wed Sept 01 2004 - 01:00

Drugs in Sport: Competition athletes have been known to blame their trainers after testing positive for drugs. But stars of the latest sport to become embroiled in doping really can use that excuse - even if they cannot be heard proclaiming their innocence.

Significant numbers of racing greyhounds in Britain have fallen foul of a ban on nandrolone, an anabolic steroid used by athletes to increase muscle power.

The London-based National Greyhound Racing Club has so far imposed fines of up to £1,000 per dog on trainers and has now issued a warning to vets who may not be familiar with its rules.

Frank Melville, chief executive of the club in Britain, is responsible for policing a sport that generates £1.6 billion a year in betting turnover and attracts 3.7 million customers to tracks. Yesterday Melville warned that for anybody to now use nandrolone "would be mad".

READ MORE

Possible penalties include cautions, fines up to £5,000, suspension, or withdrawal of the trainer's licence, or a total ban.

Melville, in response to suggestions the £1,000 highest fine so far imposed was rather low, said: "Some people would think that is quite a hefty fine. I think now that if there were nandrolones coming through that had been administered recently, the stewards might take a different attitude."

The club improved random testing of urine samples last autumn: scientists can now pick up traces of nandrolone, and also of other products produced by the liver breaking down the drug, up to 100 days after it is injected.

Of 1,472 bitches chosen at random and tested between October 2003 and May, 42, or nearly three per cent, were positive for nandralone or its metabolites, while only two out of 2,322 male dogs (0.2 per cent) were positive.

The club, which had previously kept secret the sensitivity of the test, began charging trainers. Since January there has been 31 positive results.

There had been concerns over the drug's frequent, unlicensed use in Britain and Ireland to stop bitches going on heat. But the fact that male dogs also test positive suggests its perceived performance-enhancing qualities might play a part.