WADA probing Chinese positive drug tests

Five positive drugs tests involving Chinese swimmers that were allegedly covered up are now the subject of an investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Britain's Times newspaper reported Thursday.

The revelations came after WADA had announced on Wednesday it was looking into a possible doping scandal in Russian swimming following a previous Times report.

According to The Times, whistleblowers within Chinese swimming approached the newspaper alleging that five tests had been hidden to avoid a storm before the Olympic trials next month and asked the newspaper to pass the information to WADA which is now investigating.

"These are very serious allegations that warrant further examination," WADA spokesman Ben Nichols said in a statement released via Twitter.

"WADA is now fully scrutinizing the information that The Times newspaper has passed on to us so that we can determine exactly what the appropriate steps are and so that we can address this matter head on."

World swimming governing body FINA said they, too were "fully aware" of the cases.

"There are a small number of cases of failed doping controls by Chinese swimmers currently being investigated under the jurisdiction of CHINADA, the WADA-recognised Chinese Anti-Doping Agency," it said in a statement,

"FINA and WADA are both fully aware of these cases, but we are bound by confidentiality until the moment an athlete is actually banned."

"If the information we receive does merit further investigation, then FINA will leave no stone unturned in ensuring justice is served for the overwhelming majority of aquatics athletes who are clean."

Two of the tests are believed to have been failed in October and the other three at the turn of the year.

The Times said Chinese whistleblowers were unable to contact WADA because of state surveillance.

It quoted an "intermediary of a source" saying: "People in Chinese swimming really want WADA to ask for the truth to be told. Our pools are awash with rumours of bad things. There's a lot of fear."

The Times report came amid suggestions from within China, who finished second in the swimming medals table at the 2012 Olympics in London, that controversial coach Zhiou Ming, who had been banned for life because of doping offences, was working again with the nation's swimmers in the city of Tianjin.

The Times added that the doping allegations also had ramifications for Australia, as many Chinese swimmers train in the country.

It quoted Australia's double Olympic 1,500 metres champion Grant Hackett as saying that he believed some of the Chinese training in Australia had been approached for a sample once in 18 months —- and then only because Swimming Australia pressed the matter.

Chinese swimming has a chequered doping history, with a rash of cases throughout the 1990s. Seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for steroids at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima.

In 1998, swimmer Yuan Yuan was banned after Australian customs officers discovered a large stash of human growth hormone in her bags at the World Championships in Perth.

More recently in May 2014, 2012 Olympic 400m and 1,500m champion Sun Yang was banned for three months after testing positive for the stimulant trimetazidine.
Source: AFP