The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Tuesday they have carried out some 1,500 doping tests since the opening of the Olympic Village.

IOC director of communications Giselle Davies said around 1,500 tests covered urine and blood samples and during pre- and post-competition in the largest ever Olympic doping control program.

Spanish cyclist Maria Isabel Moreno Monday became the first athlete to test positive and be kicked out of the Games during the Olympic doping control period, which started on July 27 through to the closing of the Games on August 24.

The 27-year-old, entered for individual time trial, was tested on July 31 in the Olympic Village and left China later that day before learning the result.

The IOC decided Moreno, tested positive for the blood-boosting hormone EPO or erythropoietin, should be excluded from the Games and announced her disqualification on Monday.

The IOC pledged to make the Beijing Games a "clean" one and planned a historic-high 4,500 tests through the Olympic period. It is a 25 percent increase from the 3,600 tests in Athens where 26 doping cases were reported.

Top five finishers of an individual event will be tested after competition as random and target testing further enhance the chances of catching drug cheats.

For the first time at a Games, athletes must provide whereabouts information for where they are residing, training and competing from July 27 to August 24. And an athlete can be tested twice a day.

A new test kit that can better track the trace of human growth hormone (HGH) was introduced into the Games, which experts expected to finally discover HGH users.

The IOC decided that as of July 1 this year, anyone banned for a doping offence for more than six months may not participate in any capacity at the summer or winter Games immediately following the date of expiry of such suspension. The revised World Anti-Doping Code extended the ban for the first-time offender from two years to four years.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)