London: A Chinese anti-doping official warned the country’s athletes to avoid “accidental mistakes” during their stay in London for the Olympic Games.
Three thousand tests were planned for athletes who were expected to make it to London and the programme will draw to a close by July end as 396 athletes head to London.
China Anti-Doping Agency’s deputy head Zhao Jian was confident of sending a clean team to the Games with a strict doping-control programme which helped catch Rome swimming world champion Li Zhesi in March.
“Generally speaking, the situation is good. After all these years of hard work in conducting doping tests and education, we think athletes are well aware of the risk of cheating,” said Zhao.
China has been free from doping scandals at the Olympics since Atlanta 1996. But Zhao admitted that he worries.
“They know they must not use banned drugs but that’s not enough to avoid positive tests. They also need to guard against accidental mistakes,” Zhao said.
“I am a little worried that some of them just don’t care about these things. I want to tell them: once you are found positive, you will be punished, no matter you violate the regulation wittingly or unwittingly,” he added. (IANS)