Anonymity 'the most important feature of accurate and secure drug testing'

Experts working at the Olympic anti-doping laboratory in London have said that anonymity will be the key to a summer of accurate and secure drug testing.

Working anonymity into this year's Olympics is a daunting and challenging test, with over 6,000 urine and blood samples taken during the 2012 Olympics. However, it is a task that has been given the utmost importance, with strict procedures in place from obtaining the sample to collecting the results.

This year, athletes will be identified by a barcode, rather than by personal details. This means that the couriers carrying the samples to and from the lab, as well as the scientists carrying out the tests, will be unaware of which athletes are being tested.

The samples are taken on an hourly basis to the laboratory located in Harlow, on the outskirts of London. They are carried in a blue silver-lined box and have the barcode scanned in before testing begins.

Once the sample has been checked into the laboratory, scientists then open and analyse sample A, and freeze and securely store sample B. The stored samples will be opened in the future to test for banned substances that may not show up in the samples now.

Using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry equipment that can screen for more than 240 banned substances in less than 24 hours, the scientists conduct one of the most thorough anti-doping campaigns seen at the Olympics to date.

David Cowan, head of the Drug Control Centre at King's College London and the man overseeing London 2012's anti-doping regime, has said his team can screen up to 400 samples a day and expects to analyse around 6,250 in total during the Games.

Leon Edwards who runs Versapak Doping Control, a tamper-proof equipment maker, told Reuters: "Being found guilty of being a dope cheat in sport carries an enormous stigma, so it is only fair to the athletes that systems for testing are flawless.

"Modern procedures have every step covered, from incorruptible sample-gathering, tamper-evident methods of transportation and robust lab tests."

Posted by Fiona Griffiths