What do WADA statistics reveal? (part II)

Weightlifting, athletics lead

Olympic sports contributed 1.94 per cent ‘positive’ of 1,76,502 samples tested, at a total findings tally of 3426, out of which 1710 were ‘positive’. The balance 1716 produced atypical findings. Non-Olympic sports contributed 830 ‘positive’ results which came to 2.68 per cent and 322 ATF, coming to another 1.04 per cent for a total finding of 1,152 that came to 3.71 per cent.

Among major Olympic sport, weightlifting topped the charts with 3.4 per cent of positive results from 8553 samples tested.  ‘In competition’ there were 189 positive tests in weightlifting and out of competition (OOC) there were 98. Atypical results were 22 and 27 respectively.

Athletics (24,942 samples) and cycling (22,252 samples) came up with 1.2 per cent ‘positive’ reporting. Athletics had 180 AAF ‘in-competition’ and 63 AAF in OOC. There were 85 each atypical findings ‘in-competition’ as well as out of competition.

Despite all the adverse publicity received for cycling following the Lance Armstrong doping scandal and the suspicions around road cycling, the sport escaped occupying the No. 1 spot among frontline Olympic disciplines where large numbers of tests are carried out every year.

Cycling as a discipline, excluding road cycling, mountain biking etc, provided only 122 positive results from 5566 ‘in competition’ samples while road cycling (which includes events like the Tour de France) had 73 AAF from 4903 ‘in competition’ samples. Out of competition, cycling had 10 ‘positives’ reports while road cycling had 11.

NDTL scores high percentage

Among the 33 accredited laboratories the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), New Delhi, comes second for the percentage of ‘positives’ for the year 2013 (2.49%), behind Mexico City (8.27%) which happened to have been accredited only in June 2013 and tested only 1305 urine samples compared to NDTL’s 6489.

(NDTL’s own figures vary a little from the above, with 6885 samples for 2013 being published on its website for a percentage of 2.6 for ‘positives’. For 2014, up to July, it has tested 5026 samples for a ‘positives’ percentage, again, of 2.6)

It may be noted here that laboratories test samples from the countries that they are situated in as well as from other countries. NDTL, for example, tested 2458 ‘international samples’ in 2013 and has already done 2026 such samples up to July this year.

Among the IRMS (isotope ratio mass spectrometry) and EPO tests done by the laboratories in 2013, NDTL scored high with 77.8 per cent of ‘positives’, though from a very low number of samples. Of the 16 ‘in- competition’ samples under this category, 12 turned in ‘positives’ and of the two OOC samples both came ‘positive’.

IRMS is utilized to clinch evidence of exogenous administration of an endogenous androgen in order to exclude the argument from an athlete, “Of course, my body always produced this level of testosterone”.

IRMS determines exogenous administration of a steroid as it did in the Floyd Landis case. The American who came first in the 2006 Tour de France was disqualified for a doping offence involving T/E ratio and in a drawn-out case the decision was eventually upheld.

Among the labs that handled large volumes during the year,  Moscow tested 18609 urine samples, with 295 turning up ‘positive’ for a percentage of 1.56, Cologne did 16833 samples with 344 ‘positive’ tests making it 1.95 per cent, Beijing 15,319 samples with 46 ‘positive’ tests for a percentage of 0.30, Paris 9082 samples with 87 ‘positive’ for 0.91 per cent, Dresden 9032 samples with 36 ‘positives’ making it 0.39 per cent and Tokyo 7117 with 16 ‘positive’ results accounting for 0.22 per cent.

As in the previous years, anabolic agents (eg. steroids) headed the substances list with 3320 findings, accounting for 63 per cent of a total of 5271 cases reported in the ADAMS (anti-doping administration and management system) compared to 2279 and 50.6 per cent in 2012.

Stimulants came next at 530 cases and 10 per cent followed by diuretics and other masking agents at  393 (7.5%), glucocorticosteroids at 330 (6.3%), peptide hormones, growth factors and related substances at 202 (3.8%) and cannabinoids (e.g. cannabis, hashish, marijuana) at 188 (3.6%).

Among steroids, T/E ratio (testosterone-epitestosterone ratio to determine testosterone ‘positive’) topped with 1859, accounting for 59.6 per cent in the particular class of banned substances, followed by stanozolol (yes, according to some, the old-fashioned steroid made famous by Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson) at 329 (10.6%), dehdrocholomethyl-testosterone at 217 (7.0%), 19-norandrosterone (nandrolone metabolite) at 183 (5.9%), methandienone at 120 (3.8%) and boldenone at 77 (2.5%).

Not so old-fashioned!

Those who still believe, especially in India, despite yearly statistics revealing otherwise, that Indians use “outdated” drugs when reports come in of testosterone, stanozolol or methandienone being ‘choice drugs’ among Indian sportspersons, especially track and field athletes, could be encouraged to believe that these remain on top of the list world-wide also.

It is of course easy to talk of “designer drugs” since no one knows what they are or whether you have an athlete who has that in his/her body till a Don Catlin discovers one, formulates a test, reports it and it is approved for use by accredited laboratories.

Among stimulants, methylhexaneamine (MHA)_you guessed it right_ that made big headlines in India in 2010 and 11 cases  related to it dragged on for years, topped with 169 ‘positives’ accounting for 31.9 per cent within the class of substances. It was down on the 2012 figure of 320 that came up to 45.9 per cent within the drug class.

Methylphenidate, used in attention deficit disorders, and narcolepsy, came to 66 cases and 12.5 per cent among stimulants followed by cocaine at 52 ‘positive’ accounting for 9.8 per cent.

Among the International Federations, International Cycling Union (UCI) was in the forefront, with 6096 ‘in-competition’ samples and 2967 OOC samples accounting for 9430 samples and an adverse analytical finding of 1.0 per cent.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) followed with 4376 tests including 1859 OOC, also with a one per cent ‘positive’ report.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF), with 2578 tests and 0.5 per cent adverse findings and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) with 1937 tests and 5.3 per cent adverse findings were the other leading international federations in the fight against doping last year.

Just one adverse finding in cricket

Of interest to the Indian fans, the International Cricket Council (ICC) conducted 122 ‘in-competition’ tests, with two atypical findings and one adverse analytical finding, and 266 OOC samples with zero adverse findings. In all, ICC tests reported 0.3 per cent adverse findings.

Among National Anti Doping Organisations (NADOs), Russia led the way with 6949 tests ‘in-competition’ and 7463 OOC tests, for a total of 14582 tests that returned 199 adverse findings, accounting for 1.4 per cent.

China (13364 samples and 0.2 per cent adverse findings), Germany (7709 and 0.2 per cent) and USA (7144 and 0.9 per cent) were the other leading NADOs in terms of number of tests done during the year.

India (NADA) did 4848 tests that came up with 93 adverse findings (also a negligible two cases of atypical findings, one each ‘in-competition and OOC) for a percentage of 2.2.

There were some abnormal figures resulting from limited number of tests that turned up higher than expected ‘positive’ results. El Salvador did just three tests and found two of them had come ‘positive’ accounting for 66.7 per cent!

Other countries that reported higher percentage for adverse findings from a limited number of samples included Ukraine (11.1%), Kuwait (10.6%), Mexico (10.4%), Niger (10.0%), Belarus (8.2%) and Iran (7.7%).

(concluded)