NATIONAL coach Bill Sweetenham called the world governing body's spot drug testing at the Asian Games 'a waste of time' after Hong Kong swimmer Katie Lau King-ting was one of 29 athletes tested in Hiroshima.
Swimming's ruling body FINA have despatched a doping team to Hiroshima for the Asian Games and a surprise sweep this week saw tests done on 16 Chinese swimmers, 12 Japanese and Lau.
But Sweetenham said it will not help in nabbing the cheats and should have been done three weeks ago.
'It is an absolute waste of money and time,' said Sweetenham yesterday, on the eve of the swimming competition. 'It happened two days before competition which doesn't mean anything because if you are here, you are clean.
'I think it was just done for showmanship. FINA wants to show that they are doing something.
'If they are serious, they should have testing out of competition, at random and anywhere in the world at any time.' Samples have been sent to Mitsubishi Yuka B. C. Laboratory in Tokyo, an IOC-accredited centre, and results, if positive, will be published about a week later.