Sports Council says lack of funds limits the extent of drugs testing

CASH-STRAPPED sports chiefs have no plans for a drugs testing blitz here but say they are targeting tests more precisely to pick out cheats when they are most likely to be in breach of doping rules.

In the four full years since the Irish Sports Council took over the national drugs test programme, the number of tests carried out per year has risen only modestly from 621 in 2000 to 774 last year.

In the same period, the variety of sports in which tests were conducted rose from 21 to 36. But a total of 54 sports have signed up to the anti-doping programme which means some minority sports have not yet had any representative tested or can expect testing only on alternative years or less often.