KINGSTON, Jamaica: All 44 athletes on the Jamaican team, including sprint superstar Usain Bolt, were tested late on Monday at their Moscow training camp for the athletics World Championships.
Team officials confirmed that agents from the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) arrived at the camp in Moscow, where all of the athletes had blood taken in the sweeping operation.
It wasn’t clear if an entire national team had ever before been asked to undergo testing on the eve of a major competition.
The Jamaican track and field program has been under increased scrutiny over the last two months after former World 100m record holder Asafa Powell and his training partner Sherone Simpson were among five athletes who tested positive at the Jamaican championships in Kingston in June.
Meanwhile, With the Liu Xiang era limping to a close, China’s focus is squarely on Beijing 2015 as an emerging group of competitors test themselves at the world championships in Moscow.
Track and field hopes for the world’s most populous nation have long rested on 110m hurdler Liu, who became China’s first men’s Olympic track and field champion at Athens 2004.
However, strikingly similar injury exits at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 -- both in the opening heat, and with the same Achilles problem -- appear to have all but ended the 30-year-old’s career.
Now, the onus is on China’s young stars as they prepare to welcome the world back to the famous Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium for the next world championships in two years’ time.
“China has a lot of top athletes, especially in the men’s 110m hurdles,” Xie Wenjun, 23, said at the Shanghai Diamond League meet in May, where he finished third behind reigning world champion Jason Richardson.
“Liu Xiang is not here, and we all hope he returns, but he is not the only one... we are also talented and can achieve very good results.”
Xie’s words were borne out in Shanghai, where his performance was not the only reason for Chinese officials to cheer. In the men’s long jump, Li Jinzhe emerged victorious in a field including Olympic champion Greg Rutherford and Panama’s Irving Saladino, the gold medallist at Beijing 2008. AGENCIES
