Former Chinese Olympian Song Hongjuan has been banned from competing for four years after failing an EPO test, officials said Saturday.According to the Chinese Athletic Association's website, the 24-year-old race walker, who placed 14th in the women's 20 kilometers walk at the Athens Olympic Games four years ago, tested positive for erythropoietin at a competition here in February.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which also reported the case on Saturday, have agreed with the Chinese authorities to suspend Song until March 25, 2012.
Song did not participate in the selection process for the 2008 Olympics.
China is making great efforts to send a clean team to the August 8-24 Games with tough punishments, frequent tests and constant anti-doping education for its athletes, especially those heading towards the Games.
Earlier last month, life-time bans have been handed to China's top man backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng and wrestler Luo Meng after both tested positive for doping, while their coaches were also suspended for life.
....AND NOW THIS!
Six horses in NJ test positive for EPO
Trenton, NJ --- New Jersey Racing Commission Executive Director Frank Zanzuccki announced today that a Racing Commission investigation has resulted in the first positive test results obtained under the state’s recently-expanded testing protocols aimed at detecting the use of performance- enhancing substances in race horses.Racing Commission investigators oversaw the drawing of fluids from horses at the Commission-licensed Winner’s International Farm in Chesterfield, Burlington County, last month. Laboratory tests subsequently confirmed that six harness race horses under the care of trainer Ernest Adam and owned by Commission-licensed owner Stephen C. Slender, DVM, had tested positive for the performance- enhancing drug Erythropoietin- Human (EPO). The six harness horses have been declared ineligible to compete in New Jersey racing, consistent with the rules of the Racing Commission’s new “out-of-competition” testing initiative.New Jersey State Police searched the farm where the six horses had been kept earlier today. Based on lab results and other information obtained during the investigation, the Racing Commission will now conduct a hearing to determine whether Adam and Slender have violated Commission rules. The Commission is in the process of issuing Adam and Slender Notices of Hearing, which list their alleged rule violations.Pending the outcome of their respective hearings, both men remain eligible to participate in New Jersey racing. Under Racing Commission rules, a trainer is the absolute insurer of, and is responsible for, the condition of a horse within his or her care and custody. Violations of the state’s testing rules are punishable by a 10-year license suspension and $50,000 fine.The six horses identified as having tested positive for EPO have all raced at Freehold and the Meadowlands in New Jersey this year, and have raced at tracks in New York and Pennsylvania as well.The six horses are: Art Maker, who last raced this past Sunday at Harrah's Chester Downs; Jeremy’s Successor, who last raced at the Meadowlands on Sunday; Jovial Joker N, who last raced at Saratoga on Sunday; JW Dutch Treat, who last raced at Yonkers on April 24; Pacific Playboy, who last raced at Harrah's Chester Downs on Sunday; and Western Mac, who last raced at Harrah's Chester Downs on April 20.The Racing Commission’s out-of-competition testing program was launched in late 2007. It began following adoption of a new rule that expanded the Racing Commission’s ability to test horses for illegal substances by authorizing testing not only at racetracks, but at horse farms -- and at any time. Previously, the Commission was only authorized to conduct testing of horses on race day, and only at New Jersey’s four racetracks.Za
nzuccki explained that the testing program is necessary to detect the improper administration of blood doping agents such as human EPO, which is improperly used in race horses to improve the animal’s performance.
Trenton, NJ --- New Jersey Racing Commission Executive Director Frank Zanzuccki announced today that a Racing Commission investigation has resulted in the first positive test results obtained under the state’s recently-expanded testing protocols aimed at detecting the use of performance- enhancing substances in race horses.Racing Commission investigators oversaw the drawing of fluids from horses at the Commission-licensed Winner’s International Farm in Chesterfield, Burlington County, last month. Laboratory tests subsequently confirmed that six harness race horses under the care of trainer Ernest Adam and owned by Commission-licensed owner Stephen C. Slender, DVM, had tested positive for the performance- enhancing drug Erythropoietin- Human (EPO). The six harness horses have been declared ineligible to compete in New Jersey racing, consistent with the rules of the Racing Commission’s new “out-of-competition” testing initiative.New Jersey State Police searched the farm where the six horses had been kept earlier today. Based on lab results and other information obtained during the investigation, the Racing Commission will now conduct a hearing to determine whether Adam and Slender have violated Commission rules. The Commission is in the process of issuing Adam and Slender Notices of Hearing, which list their alleged rule violations.Pending the outcome of their respective hearings, both men remain eligible to participate in New Jersey racing. Under Racing Commission rules, a trainer is the absolute insurer of, and is responsible for, the condition of a horse within his or her care and custody. Violations of the state’s testing rules are punishable by a 10-year license suspension and $50,000 fine.The six horses identified as having tested positive for EPO have all raced at Freehold and the Meadowlands in New Jersey this year, and have raced at tracks in New York and Pennsylvania as well.The six horses are: Art Maker, who last raced this past Sunday at Harrah's Chester Downs; Jeremy’s Successor, who last raced at the Meadowlands on Sunday; Jovial Joker N, who last raced at Saratoga on Sunday; JW Dutch Treat, who last raced at Yonkers on April 24; Pacific Playboy, who last raced at Harrah's Chester Downs on Sunday; and Western Mac, who last raced at Harrah's Chester Downs on April 20.The Racing Commission’s out-of-competition testing program was launched in late 2007. It began following adoption of a new rule that expanded the Racing Commission’s ability to test horses for illegal substances by authorizing testing not only at racetracks, but at horse farms -- and at any time. Previously, the Commission was only authorized to conduct testing of horses on race day, and only at New Jersey’s four racetracks.Za
nzuccki explained that the testing program is necessary to detect the improper administration of blood doping agents such as human EPO, which is improperly used in race horses to improve the animal’s performance.
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