Sydeny, May 29: Australia's sports drug testing agency said on Wednesday it would carry out an unprecedented 3,800 anti-doping checks on Olympic athletes ahead of next year's Athens Games.
John Mendoza, chief executive of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), said Australian athletes would be checked both at home and abroad over the next 12 months in the largest government-funded drug testing program in Aussie history.

"In our test distribution planning for next year we have put a much greater emphasis on Olympic sports so that Australia can be confident that our athletes going into Athens are doing it under fair means and we've done all we can to deter the use of any banned substances," Mendoza told a senate hearing in Canberra.

Roux banned for four years: In Lausanne, Switzerland, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has imposed a four-year competition ban on French cyclist Laurent Roux for a drugs offense. CAS said Wednesday the sanction - which runs until May 26, 2007 - is combined with a fine of 4,000 Swiss francs (US$3,000).


Kenyan athlete tested positive: Kenyan athlete Pamela Chepchumba, sixth in the world cross country women's championships in Switzerland, has failed a drugs test for endurance-booster EPO. Bureau Report