The brave new world of an Ireland that is no longer a safe haven for drug cheats will need to significantly step up its testing rate if targets are to be met.
The crackdown promised for Olympic year by Tourism and Sport Minister Jim McDaid is currently well short of his declaration of conducting 600 tests in 2000.
Between December 31st, 1999 and April 20th, 2000, 103 tests have been carried out. During this period only five sports were involved despite the fact that 24 sports are included in the carding scheme which funds athletes. Two of the biggest sports in the country, Gaelic football and hurling are still not in the drug testing loop.
The annual number of tests for 2000 will be around 30 per cent down on the declared 600 if the present rate of testing remains while the penetration into those sports who receive grants through the carding scheme currently worked out at just over 20 per cent.
The figures, obtained from the Irish Sports Council (ISC) through the Freedom of Information Act reflect a sluggish approach by the Sports Council in one of the most active of years for athletes because of the Olympic games in Sydney.
International Drug Testing Management (IDTM), who are contracted to carry out testing for the ISC, have up to 12 trained personnel available, including two nurses who are capable of taking blood samples if that procedure ever becomes practice.
According to Al Guy, operations manager for IDTM in Ireland, the testing company simply does what it is asked to do by the Sports Council. "These figures have been released by the ISC and we would not disagree with them," said Guy.
"What I can say is that our contract with the ISC is merely to conduct tests at their request. It was publicly announced that there would be 600 tests conducted this year and IDTM are geared to handle that quantity and more if required to do so."
IDTM, a Swedish based agency with a global network, must wait for written authorisation from the ISC before they can conduct a test on any athlete. This is different to the way the company works for the governing bodies of swimming, FINA, and athletics, IAAF, where it devises its own structures for testing in association with the parent body.
Athletics (35), boxing (12), rugby (20), rowing (15) and swimming (12) are the five sports which have been tested, with boxing turning up one positive. The fact that the Irish Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) decided not to sanction the unnamed boxer for ingesting a steroid Winstrol has also set alarm bells ringing and questions the whole point of testing and the ISC's role once a positive test is revealed.
"Of course we will do everything in our power to ensure the integrity of our anti-doping programme is upheld," said ISC chief executive John Treacy after the boxing revelation.
How the ISC will handle this issue now is of enormous importance to the other federations who may turn up positive athletes. The boxer in question claimed that he never "knowingly and willingly" consumed the banned substance which belonged to a body-builder friend.
What has also transpired from the figures is an apparent lack of conviction in the ISC proposed practice of testing out of competition. A mere 30 tests have been conducted in the same first four-month period of the year. In a high profile media event in Leopardstown, Dublin, last November attended by over 200 delegates, the ISC mission statement declared:
"The programme has had a strong emphasis on out of competition testing in the first instance - this is considered the most effective approach to testing. The presence of the doping control officers at these (high profile) events serves to bring attention to the work of the anti-doping programmes and alerts athletes that the probability of being tested is now very high."
It is a pity then that the figures for the first quarter do not appear to support such a case.
