Swimming: Dozens tested in drug fallout

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - Sports drug officials have tested 250 of Australia's elite athletes as part of an aggressive campaign to contain the fallout from the alleged discovery of anabolic steroids in a safe belonging to star swimming coach Gennadi Touretski.

With an intense international spotlight on one of the world's most vocal opponents of drugs in sport, the results of the tests will be pushed through urgently and should be available early next week.

The Australian Sports Drug Agency (Asda) also yesterday released details of the tests carried out on Olympic gold medallist Michael Klim, one of Touretski's outstanding swimmers, and other members of the national swim squad.

The swimmers have joined the attack, rejecting suggestions of illegal drug-taking. They have offered sympathy and support for Touretski.

The former Russian coach, who moved to Australia seven years ago, will appear in court in Canberra today charged with possessing tablets of the steroid Stanozolol, the drug that ended the career of Canadian runner Ben Johnson in 1988. Touretski has denied the charge.

Canadian Dick Pound, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said the allegation showed that Australia was not immune from problems with drugs in sport, although he emphasised that the nation was a leader in eliminating their use.

"What I hope is that we will find this was not a case of a coach administering these substances or counselling their use," he said.

Asda chief executive John Mendoza said that Klim had been subject to 47 unannounced, random tests since he joined the Australian Institute of Sport in 1996 - almost one test a month by Asda - as well as other testing by the international swimming federation.

The 10 members of the present national squad who competed in the Sydney Olympics had been subject to 49 tests in the 15 months before the Games, and since November had been tested once a month.

"They are the only athletes in the world subject to such a programme," Mendoza said.

At an emotional press conference yesterday, Klim read a statement on behalf of the squad, emphasing their total opposition to drug-taking and its commitment to drug-free sport.

He said he had been shocked by the Touretski allegation, and at the possibility that he and team-mates could be tainted by association.

"Obviously, it's been very tough for me over the past couple of days, as you can imagine," he said.

"I'm not used to this sort of scrutiny because I've always been innocent.

"I've never returned a positive drug test."

Fellow Olympic gold-medallist Alexander Popov, who followed Touretski to Canberra, declined to speak to the media, but issued a statement supporting the trainer.

Touretski, who has been suspended on full pay from the Australian Institute of Sport, faces a mandatory life ban from training if he is found guilty.