Drugs in Sport Out-of-competition testing: Staffan Sahlstrom knows all there is to know about the murky world of drug testing in sport. Sahlstrom is president of International Doping Tests & Management (IDTM). You may remember him from such long-running episodes as 'Whiskey in the jar' and 'All you need to know about tamper-proof beakers'.screening for banned substances

It was two of the Swedish tester's foot soldiers, Kay and Al Guy, who inadvertently starred in both features when they swooped into Kilkenny a few years ago to collect a urine sample from triple Olympic gold medallist Michelle de Bruin. The Guys arrived "out of competition" (OOCT) and unannounced early in the morning. Therein lies the strength of such testing; occasionally you catch athletes off guard.

"Out-of-competition doping controls should involve little or no prior warning to the athletes, coaches, doctors or national federations. The controls should be professionally organised and have the same quality all over the world," says the head of the world-leading IDTM testing company. He goes on.

"Because anabolic steroids are misused during training periods and because truly effective controls are only possible when testing coincides with the time that the prohibited substance is likely to be used, out-of-competition tests were introduced."

Dr Una May, Dr Conor O'Brien and Irish Sports Council chief executive John Treacy, in their fight against drug abuse, know more than most of us. All the more strange, then, that the team sports of GAA, rugby and soccer are not subject to the same OOCT as are individual sports such as athletics, boxing and swimming. The GAA inter-county players, who will come on board this summer for OOCT, will be asked for samples only at training. No IDTM operative will turn up at breakfast unannounced. No one will see a specimen beaker anywhere other than after a match or at a squad session. That kind of shakes Sahlstrom's premise that doctors, athletes, coaches and federation should have little or no prior knowledge.

It means players coming back from injury will not be tested until they are back in a squad environment. It means players, if they have a mind to, can opt out of county involvement in winter and not be tested. It means teenage swimmers and athletes can be woken from their beds at home and asked for urine samples and those in major teams sports cannot. It means the masking of banned substances is easier for team players because testing of them is less random.

There is an inequity in what the ISC have agreed to with the three major team sports. In essence, they have redefined OOCT for those sports and left it as we all understood it to be for individual athletes. The methodology for collecting and analysing samples is qualitatively different depending on which sport an athlete plays. Catherina McKiernan can be visited in her home for a urine sample, while Brian O'Driscoll cannot.

"If it's fair or not, we have to take a practical approach," said John Treacy yesterday. Pointing to the numbers of team athletes involved in Irish sport, he accurately points out that "it's a lot of whereabouts for a lot of athletes."

ISC programme manager Dr May makes a similar point.

"The difference (between teams and individual athletes) is based more on a practical basis. The practicalities of tying them down on a day-to-day basis are difficult," she said.

Yesterday's ISC annual report states: "Out-of-competition testing can occur at any time and at any place. The 'Athlete Whereabouts System' is an integral part of an efficient OOCT programme. The system requires athletes to provide timely, complete and accurate information on their training times, schedules, venues and activities over a given period."

OOCT clearly does not occur at any time or place in GAA, rugby or soccer. As it stands, the testing is inequitable and predictable. The political waltzing to get the IRFU, who paid for 40 additional tests last year, the FAI and GAA into place was worth it. They need now to allow people like the Guys leave their footprints in places other than training grounds.