Negative positives

Drugs in sport

Friday 28 July 1995 18:02 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Football's crackdown on wayward young professionals has contributed to a big increase in the number of positive drug tests in British sport.

Training ground testing resulted in 13 positive findings in 1994-95, according to the annual report of the Sports Council's doping control service.

Eight of those linked players to marijuana, four to stimulants and one to narcotic use. Only powerlifting produced more positives - 16. But 13 of those were for anabolic steroid offences carrying long bans. Most of the footballers were either warned or assessed for rehabilitation.

Michele Verroken, head of the doping control unit, said: "The findings reflect the change in emphasis in testing in certain sports. Football has taken on this responsibility and we are looking for things there which we would not be looking for in other sports."

The report revealed 67 positives, up from 43 in the previous 12 months. There were seven positives in rugby league, three involving Australian players, and five positives in athletics, three of them for stimulants. One athlete who tested positive for diuretics had no action taken against him by his governing body.

A total of 4,374 samples were collected in 50 sports. The bill came to pounds 907,000.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in