Athletics: Triathlete says tests bound to catch more steroids

Former world No 1 triathlete Hamish Carter says more new and undetectable performance-enhancing drugs are likely to be found after a new anabolic steroid was revealed last week.

World athletics officials are reviewing their drug-testing regime after several athletes returned positive A sample urine tests for the previously-unknown steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

The crisis has rocked the sport, and officials have promised hefty fines and life bans for drug cheats.

France and Germany are also re-testing urine samples of their athletes who competed at the recent world championships for THG, and the International Olympic Committee said there would be stringent tests for the substance at next year's Athens Olympics.

An American laboratory which manufactures sports diet supplements is also under investigation.

Carter, ranked at No 9 in the world, said it was good news for "clean athletes" that the cheats would be caught.

He said THG was used by athletics in the "explosive" sprint sports and he believed more similar drugs were likely to be found in endurance sports, including a synthetic drug called EPO.

"The endurance doping probably still hasn't come out yet.

"I would suspect for an endurance athlete there is probably a drug out there which they haven't been able to detect yet and, hopefully, it is only a matter of time before they find it.

"A lot of athletes work so hard and when people get a performance out of a syringe, it is going to be great to see them grovel," Carter said.

Scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles uncovered THG after a tip-off from a coach.

- NZPA