Chinese authorities find 69 doping offences so far this year

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese anti-doping authorities on Thursday announced 69 doping rule violations as till the end of November this year.

The 69 doping rule violations included 63 positive test results and 6 other offences, including biological passport violation, failure to report the whereabouts information and forging evidence and providing false information.

China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) said samples of 109 athletes and 5 horses returned 118 positive results after they completed 16,254 tests as of the end of November, including 14,100 urine and 2,154 blood tests.

Among the 118 positive cases, the agency ruled 63 cases of doping violations while 55 cases positive of clenbuterol caused by food contamination were not punished.

The total number of tests is expected to exceed 17,000 for the whole year, a 40 percent year-on-year increase while the number of positive cases increased by more than 50 percent over the same period of last year, CHINADA said.

One of the highlights of China's efforts in this regard this year is anti-doping education, being carried out all over the country. CHINADA and provincial-level sports bureaus gave lectures and held outreach programs as part of their anti-doping campaign, covering over 100,000 athletes, coaches and sports fans.

Ahead of this year's National Games, all athletes and coaches needed to take written anti-doping exams for qualification alongside their athletics qualification. Enditem