A senior World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) official has spoken
highly of China's anti-doping efforts, saying they have been
effective.
A total of 26 Chinese athletes have been caught using illegal
substances this year ahead of the ongoing 10th National Games.
"I think one way it's a good news, because it shows the system
works ... it shows China is serious about anti-doping work," Rune
Andersen, director of WADA's Standard and Harmonization, told
reporters on Saturday.
"If there had been zero positive results, that could be strange,
" he added.
China has been tough on anti-doping over the past decade and
enacted its anti-doping law in March last year.
Andersen is heading a three-man WADA inspection team at the
October 12-23 National Games. They paid visits to doping-control
centers for seven sports, including swimming, rowing and
gymnastics.
"In regrads to the National Games, the doping control is meeting
any international standard," said Andersen.
Organizers have vowed to keep the quadrennial National Games
clean and run more than 1,000 urine tests, 20 percent more than at
the 2001 event, where 11 athletes tested positive for drugs. So far
no positive result was reported at the games.
(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2005)