Experiments in Australia have confirmed that Erythropiten (EPO), the supposed wonder drug of the new millennium, can dramatically increase athletic performance and have also led to scientists believing that they are close to discovering a testing method for detection.
In a departure from conventional methods, 22 Australian athletes were injected at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra with the performance-enhancing drug, while 11 were given a placebo in trials to develop a reliable doping test before the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
"We are seeing huge increases in performance in a very short amount of time," Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scientist Hamilton Lee told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. EPO occurs naturally in humans, but some endurance athletes inject it to increase the ability of their bloodstream to carry oxygen. The result is improved performance. It is not detectable through urine analysis and there is currently no reliable test.
The Tour de France was reduced to a farce last summer when French police arrested the Festina team masseur Willy Voet at the border between Belgium and France carrying vials of EPO. Festina were subsequently thrown out of the race.
Details of the current Australian results are currently being kept under strict wraps until the tests are concluded later this month, but Australian Sports Commission director Geoff Strang said the results were "very exciting".
"The present task is to see whether we can detect artificial EPO," he said.
The AIS has been injecting the athletes three times a week under the management of physiologists and doctors. The tests are being conducted in consultation with the Australian Sports Drug Agency.
If such research was to be carried out here it would be done on a strictly voluntary basis. Irish athletes under the current carding scheme are bound to accept the current drug testing procedures outlined by their federations and the IOC.
