China conducts over 14,000 doping tests in 2020 despite pandemic

2020 doing control statistics from CHINADA. (CHINADA via Xinhua)

China managed to complete over 14,000 doping tests in 2020 despite the pandemic.

BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua) -- China carried out over 14,000 doping tests in 2020 despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although a large number of sports events were canceled due to the pandemic which led to a decrease in the overall number of the tests, China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) managed to complete 14,072 tests, of which 12,026 were urine tests and 2,046 were blood tests. In 2019, CHINADA conducted 20,314 tests.

According to a report released by CHINADA on Tuesday, A total of 25 cases of doping rule violations were found during domestic doping control, with an overall violation rate of 0.18%.

CHINADA said it sought various solutions to problems posed by the pandemic in the past year aside from formulating pandemic prevention measures.

It asked the doping control officers (DCOs) to station in training bases and mobilized nationwide resources, sending local DCOs to perform the tasks instead of fielding them directly from Beijing.

"CHINADA also actively entrusted overseas test authorities to monitor and test the athletes preparing for the Olympic Games. The number of overseas testing in the first quarter alone was as high as 657, an increase of 115% from the total number in 2019," it said.