Anti-doper Pound hammers home the message

By EUGENE BINGHAM in Athens

Dick Pound should be in the recording industry - not only does he have a name that's hard to forget, he could put out a greatest hits album already.

The chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has always been quotable but this week in Athens he landed some great shots.

On his attitude towards United States Track and Field: "The leadership of US Track and Field has been largely responsible for this problem getting as extensive as it has."

On the drug cheat industry: "It's a sleazy thing because these are concerted programmes designed by scientists, encouraged by coaches, used by athletes."

On rumours about Greek 200m Sydney gold medallist Kostas Kenteris, who was yesterday involved in a motorbike accident, running away from drug testers: "I'm not sure where he is, or what efforts have been made to find him. But if he has been asked for his whereabouts and if he isn't where he is supposed to be, then he may have a problem."

Like a sponsor on a marketing drive, Pound and Wada have used the Olympics unmercifully to promote the anti-doping message.

Thanks to Wada and the small matter of the Balco scandal that engulfed the US track team and sprint star lovers Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, drugs became the major pre-Games story.

Athens will be the first Olympics covered by the Wada Code, the all-encompassing agreement governing the fight against sports drug testing.

Athletes will be liable to testing not only after events, but also in the athletes' village - and even outside of the village - at any time during the Games. Overseeing and monitoring the programme will be an independent body, whose deputy chairman is New Zealand sports drug agency boss Graeme Steel.

Several hundred tests were conducted even before this morning's opening ceremony and there has already been at least one positive, with Kenyan boxer David Munyasia expelled for using the prohibited stimulant, cathine. Irish runner Cathal Lombard, who was due to contest the 10,000m, has admitted taking EPO, and two Greek baseball players have tested positive for banned substances too.

The fate of Kenteris looms as a major point of tension. The sprinter, voted Greek's most popular man, has avoided the spotlight and skipped major events since Sydney. It has raised questions about Greece's testing which will linger should Kenteris get to defend his title.

Dave Currie, the New Zealand chef de mission, believes it significant that Wada and the IOC are now serious about doping.

"If you can't get baddies out then the whole credibility of the Games is in question," Currie said. "If it's at Athens that some of this stuff gets addressed, then that's quite symbolic - it's a new era and a new dawn."

This new era brought trepidation and twitchiness to Athens this week.

USA Swimming issued a statement distancing itself from rumours about its team in Sydney.

Australian Ian Thorpe was ruffled by reaction to his refreshingly honest comments that swimmers would be kidding themselves if they thought their sport was clean.

He said mid-week, he would not be talking about it any more.

His previous comments had earned him a gagging order from the Australian Olympic Committee and a telling off from Fina, the world swimming body. But Pound came to Thorpe's defence. "The fact that athletes draw attention to the problems they face in competition does not bother me at all. In fact, I would encourage it."