4.00pm
A high proportion of leading sports people in New Zealand want drug cheats revealed, a New Zealand Sports Drug Agency (NZSDA) survey shows.
The majority of 250 sportsmen and women surveyed also want those suspected of drug-use targeted for testing.
Seventy nine per cent of the athletes said names of cheats should be made public if they were caught using performance enhancing drugs.
Eighty-five per cent of those surveyed said athletes suspected of taking banned substances should be targeted for testing.
A total of 86 per cent said the NZSDA should be allowed to take blood samples if they could be used to find drugs which current methods could not detect.
"The agency is encouraged by the general message from the 250 athletes surveyed from all the major sports that we are doing a competent job of testing as a deterrent to drugs in sports," NZSDA executive director Graeme Steel said.
"However there are clearly some things we need to do better.
"The athletes offered strong support for the testing programme and its effectiveness, which was an endorsement for the agency given the current environment of controversy internationally and claims that athletes were not being dealt with fairly."
Survey figures show that 79 per cent of athletes were satisfied the agency's programme was effective, while only six per cent were dissatisfied.
The agency had commissioned the study last month and said that just one per cent of athletes surveyed were dissatisfied with the attitude of the agency official taking samples.
Eighteen per cent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that performance enhancing drugs were being used within their sport in New Zealand.
Sixty six per cent said performance enhancing drugs were being used by overseas competitors in their sport.
"Those who believe drugs are being used, particularly by overseas athletes, remains a big concern," Steel said.
Sixty three per cent said enough effort was being put into controlling the use of drugs in sport in New Zealand and only nine per cent thought otherwise.
Of those surveyed, 67 per cent said they had at some stage been drug tested by the agency. Only 27 per cent thought it was "very likely" they would be drug tested during competition in the next year.
- NZPA
NZ athletes want drug cheats named and shamed
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