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Nine Banned for Chinese National Games for Doping Offenses (Updated)
The doping issue reared its head ahead of the Chinese National Games when a stash of banned drugs, including EPO and HGH, was found in a raid to an athletics team doctor's room early this week.
Tipped off about a possible doping offense, a blitz team of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) and National Games anti-doping officials Monday night found 200,000 (24,100 U.S. dollars) worth of performance-enhancing drugs in a hotel room of Chang Gehua, a doctor of the Shanxi track and field team, according to a COC statement, seen by Xinhua Thursday afternoon.
EPO, or erythropoetin, builds endurance by boosting the production of oxygen-rich red blood cells, while Human Growth Hormones (HGH) are the muscle-building drugs.
The COC statement said the raid happened in "a southern Chinese province", where the Shanxi team was supposed to be preparing for the November 11-25 Games in Guangzhou, Guangdong's provincial capital.
The National Games organizers have banned four Shanxi athletes -Wei Jianhua, Li Qiumei, Cao Jun, Liu Wenjie - and their coaches Niu Chunguang, Chen Yuejin, Zhang Hehong and Liu Tao, and doctor Chang Gehua from the National Games, said the COC statement.
The statement added the nine offenders and the association they belong to will be punished after a thorough investigation is completed.
In a similar case early August, Chinese anti-doping officials found banned substances in the Xipu training base in southwestern Chinese province Sichuan, where an earlier suspended Sichuan weightlifter received regular training.
The Chinese sports authorities have vowed repeatedly to punish drug cheats mercilessly, and they are the equal of their words.
One runner and two weightlifters from Sichuan were banned for two years for failing doping tests in August.
The Sichuan weighlifting team, to which the two lifters were registered, was subsequently banned from competing in the National Games.
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