Pound Calls For "B"-tests Within 48hr of A-Positi

[EPelle]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070124/sp_ ... pound_dc_1

• LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound has suggested that athletes who test positive for banned substances should face mandatory 'B' tests within 48 hours, in order to speed up progress in doping cases.
  
  Pound said the measure would prevent athletes and their advisors from deliberately delaying their 'B' tests in the hope that samples would degrade.
  
  He also called for provisional bans to come into force as soon as a 'B' test confirmed the findings of an 'A' test -- a practice already observed by some of the sports monitored by WADA. (more)

[tandfman]

[quote from linked story]"The athletes or their representatives could still attend the 'B' test, as they are able to now," Pound told Reuters during a WADA conference in Lausanne.

Yes, but what if they're on the other side of the planet at the time? It seems to me that a 48-hour rule could, in some cases, effectively deprive the athlete of the right to attend the 'B' test.

[Quick Silver]

Sauce for the Goose...

Under this rule, the day would come eventually when some lab was unable to meet the 48 hour deadline for some reason. Then you'd hear the Pounder quickly change his tune.

Quick Silver
Hong Kong

[bad hammy]

Logistically 48 hours sounds too quick. Maybe two weeks to get all interested parties in line.

Does the B sample get tested at the same lab as the A sample? If so and they screwed up the first one, what's to say they don't screw up the second test?

[gh]

Athletes are moving closer to some kind of union anyway; there should be some kind of set-aside so that the athletes could have a fund for a competent lawyer/doctor team (with a vested interest in their side of the case) who could represent the athlete. Works in ohter sports, no?