Net closing on human growth hormone cheats
World Anti-Droping Agency warns that testing is set to resume after being stalled by a court case, and will include samples from athletes at the Sochi Games
The World Anti-Doping Agency expects a breakthrough within weeks to catch athletes who use human growth hormone.
Testing for HGH, including samples from Sochi Olympic athletes, should resume after being stalled by an appeal case ruling last year, Wada director-general David Howman said at a briefing on the eve of the Winter Games.
Howman said a backlog of samples has built up awaiting publication of peer-reviewed results from two research projects involving 20,000 samples. "We anticipate that in the next few weeks the publication will be accepted and therefore the test can be undertaken," Howman said.
Efforts to catch HGH users have been hampered by a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling last March.
It's outrageous that somebody is producing substances like that and passing them on, with the risk that they end up with an athlete without it being peer-reviewed
Two-time Olympic cross-country skiing champion Andrus Veerpalu of Estonia managed to get his three-year doping ban overturned on a statistical technicality. A court panel requested additional proof of accurate HGH analysis after saying that Veerpalu probably had used HGH.