Scientists ready to fight doping at Daegu world championships


In a small laboratory in the northern part of Seoul on Monday, a group of scientists were busy conducting and analyzing chemical tests.

“We’re preparing for the Daegu World Championships,” said Kwon Oh-seung, the director of Doping Control Center. 

Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva, Asafa Powell and other world-class athletes are gathering in Daegu to take part in the World Athletics Championships, one of the world’s three major sporting events, slated for Aug. 27-Sept. 4.

With just two weeks until the opening ceremony, the battle to keep drugs out of the World Championships has already started here.

The Doping Control Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, packed with state-of-art testing equipment and highly experienced staff, will run around the clock during the Daegu World Championships, according to Kwon.

“We know what we have to do, and we’re ready,” he said.

Kwon and his staff, which has expanded from 20 to 25 for the Worlds, will conduct tests on more than 2,400 athletes from 207 countries.

The laboratory, which is located some 300 kilometers north of Daegu, will receive blood and urine samples from the athletes twice a day during the competition, and will report back the result to the International Association of Athletics Federations, according to Kwon.

He admitted his team now has a tough task on their hands to make a clean and drug-free World Championships.

“The time is very limited. We normally have 10 working days for our tests, but this time we have to report the test results within 48 hours,” he said.

In the past, there were not many variants of drugs available for athletes, but now they can easily obtain various types of drugs, include steroids, blood boosters and peptide hormones. Also, as the science of detecting doping advances, the techniques of athletes who cheat by using drugs are becoming more complicated.

And not only drugs, but some use their own blood, some of which they have stored to transfuse before the game to boost oxygen levels in their body, said Kwon.

The 51-year-old director, however, says his team has the knowledge, know-how and experience to detect even such transfusions.

Although not many here recognize its value yet, the Doping Control Center has long been working as the country’s only research center for doping-free sport. Founded in 1984, with support from the Seoul government, the center has successfully conducted doping tests for 1986 Asian games and also 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Notably, during the 1988 Olympics, the center detected 100m gold medalist Ben Johnson had used anabolic steroids, and he was eventually stripped of his gold medal. Samples of Johnson’s urine were tested for drugs immediately after the 100m final, but Kwon said: “I didn’t know it was him until we had him for another test in our lab.” 

In the doping process, each athlete provides two urine samples for a drug test, and testers check only one of them. But if the sample is positive for drugs, another test will be conducted on the other sample with the athlete present.

“We don’t know whose sample it is, until we find out the result,” Kwon said, assuring that there is no loophole in the test.

The KIST Doping Control Center is currently ranked in the middle among 35 doping research centers across the world. But Kwon said he believes the Daegu World Championships will be a stepping stone for the center to play a leading role in the future.

“There will be some sleepless nights, but we’re up for the challenge and more than happy to make sure the World Championships are clean,” he added.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)