Sport Industry Group

FINA to retest blood samples- 19 Jan 2010 00:00:00

World swimming governing body FINA has announced that it will retest blood samples taken from swimmers at last year's World Championships in Rome for evidence of doping.

The governing body is looking for traces of plastic left in the blood from blood bags.

FINA took the decision at a meeting in Bangkok following the 391 blood samples taken from the July and August meeting, none of which were positive.

There were also 162 samples screened for the blood-boosting hormone EPO at the same event.

The governing body is contemplating storing blood samples for eight years after competition and also under consideration is the use of a 'biological passport' program to monitor swimmers' blood profiles for evidence of doping.