O’Rourke hope as new test can catch cheats retrospectively

Athletes who may have deprived Irish competitors of major championship medals in the past will be identified as drug cheats thanks to new testing techniques for retrospective violations, according to a global leader in the anti-doping movement.

Dr Hans Geyer, managing director of the Centre for Preventive Doping Research at Germany’s University of Cologne, was adamant when asked if the new methods would unmask many athletes whose misdemeanours were previously undetectable.

“Many, many, many positive tests,” he said in Dublin yesterday.