China officials push for effective ways to trace offenders' supply sources
A Chinese Asian Games gold medallist's silence after a failed drugs test has prompted a top mainland official to call for measures to encourage offenders to disclose their suppliers' identities.
Wang Hongni, winner of the women's triathlon at the Doha Asian Games last year, was banned by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) after testing positive for steroids on August 24. The 24-year-old, who trains with a team run by China's military, has become the nation's highest-profile doping case since women's long-distance runner Sun Yingjie was banned for two years in 2005, also for steroid use.
Wang (pictured) tested positive for 'exogenous metabolites of testosterone' in both her A and B samples during an out-of-competition test.
She has accepted her punishment and waived her right to a hearing, severely diminishing investigators' hopes of establishing who provided her with the steroids.
Zhao Jian, the head of the anti-doping commission of the Chinese Olympic Committee, feared the investigation would fail to identify the figures behind her positive tests.