THE Hong Kong Sports Institute is hoping to start out-of-competition drug testing for local athletes by May this year.
Institute assistant director Martin Lam said the Institute must wait for final consultation with the territory's National Sports Associations before it can proceed.
'The education programme itself has started but the actual testing we hope to start in April or May,' said Lam.
'We will be more concerned with out-of-competition testing rather than targeting any specific events and we hope to be testing all the sports in the Institute programmes.' Lam believes all the NSAs support drug testing in Hong Kong, but protocol calls for official approval from all the associations before the programme can get off the ground.
'The National Olympic Committee supports this so there should not be a problem for the NSAs,' said Lam.
'It's for the sake of protocol.' The Institute has yet to decide, however, where the samples will be sent for testing.
