China showed its zero tolerance to doping offense on Friday by handing two-year bans to 12 weightlifters from Hubei Province and a lifetime ban to their coaches.
The suspension came about four months before the country's 10th National Games in Jiangsu Province, east of China, which has been billed as the mini-Olympics of Chinese sports.
"The fight against doping has a lot of bearing on whether the national games could be successful," according to a statement from the Chinese State General Administration of Sports.
"It is also related to the reputation of Chinese sports and Beijing Olympics. We must be resolutely against any doping behavior."
The anti-doping committee of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) sent staff to inspect the training base of Hubei women's weightlifting team after receiving tips in late January that six weightlifters collectively used banned substances.
To cover up their doping offenses, head coach Xi Hanxiang and coach Liu Shaojun had false identity cards of the involved six weightlifters forged by using the photos of other weightlifters, who misrepresented the former six to take the doping tests required by the COC.
The six weightlifters tested by the COC also received a two-year ban. Hubei weightlifting teams, both men's and women's, were disqualified for the 10th national games as well as banned from any events at home and abroad for one year. Xi and Liu were banned for lifetime from acting as coaches.
China has stepped up its campaign against doping, as out-of-competition tests total 5,000 each year with particular attention to weightlifting, athletics and swimming, those sports liable to doping. The tests on weightlifters by the COC reached between 700 and 800 last year.
The Chinese government also implemented its first anti-doping law in March 2004 to tighten controls over banned drugs and dole out criminal penalties to serious offenders
"Despite the anti-doping law, some local teams still sailed against the wind to enhance their performance by improper means," said Zhao Jian, a senior official of the COC anti-doping committee.
"The fight against doping is far from letting up, instead we must step up the campaign against doping," he added.
Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA) is also committed to the anti-doping fight, saying that they would work along with the COC in the relentless fight against doping.
"We will never tolerate any doping offenses, in particular those who dope despite any serious warnings," said CWA general secretary Dong Shenghui.
CWA had banned two other provincial teams for one year after more than two positive cases were reported respectively in the teams within a period of one year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2005)
