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Tennis to Launch Biological Passport Programme and Step up Blood Testing |
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Tennis - 08 Mar 2013 - Tennis is the latest sport to turn to biological passports for its players as part of anti-doping efforts.
At a meeting of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme Working Group, which includes representatives of the International Tennis Federation, the men’s ATP and women’s WTA Tours and the four grand slam tournaments, on Wednesday, it was agreed that tougher measures were required.
As a result, the governing bodies will this year launch an athlete biological passport programme, which will monitor blood profiles over time and show up changes which could indicate doping.
This will require a significant increase in blood testing, particularly out of competition, and the governing bodies have committed to provide additional funding to support the initiative.
Cycling’s UCI was the first governing body to introduce biological passports in 2008 and athletics has since followed suit. Last month, Fifa, soccer’s ruling body, pledged to introduce biological profiling of players for its next two major tournaments, the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
Francesco Ricci Bitti, the president of the ITF, said: “The implementation of the athlete biological passport is an important step in the evolution of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme as it provides us with a great tool in the fight against doping in our sport.
“We also hope to have increased support from the national anti-doping agencies around the world who need to do their part if we are to win the battle and make our programme more effective, Our thanks to the grand slam tournaments, the ATP and WTA who have recognised the need to increase the investment of tennis in anti-doping and to the players who asked for more testing, especially blood testing, over the next few years.”
Tennis recently came in for criticism over its approach to doping when it emerged that the ITF had carried out only 21 out-of-competition blood tests in the professional game in 2011. By contrast, the UCI conducted more than 3,314 such tests in the same year.
Top male players Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Roger Federer have led calls for more drug testing in tennis to dispel any suspicion that the sport has a doping problem.
The biological passport programme measures and monitors an athlete’s blood variables over time and establishes an individual longitudinal profile that can indicate the use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method.
Sportcal
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