Investigators look closely at California lab

The laboratory at the centre of the drug scandal which has rocked world athletics in the past week is being investigated for allegedly receiving millions of dollars in return for undetectable performance-enhancing drugs.

The inquiry into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), based in Burlingame, California, south of San Francisco, has been brought about by new tests, currently being developed in the US, that are able to reveal the banned anabolic steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), a previously undetectable substance.