Informative story at the Runners World site today about the EPO testing. Here's an excerpt. Note that Arne Ljungqvist says that Yegorova DID NOT fail the test last year.
Far too many journalists who covered this -- in fact, almost all who wrote anything about this case -- contributed to the lies through good old-fashioned sloppy reporting. Caveat emptor.
Even the story below causes some head-scratching. The "gel" referred is presumably an electrophoresis gel, which is part of the testing apparatus. So the problem was with the apparatus, not with the B sample itself. The testers were apparently able to use remaining B-sample urine to run a second test. But there was a gel problem in that run too? Unbelievable. And did they have only enough B-sample urine for two runs of the test?
More questions: Have the validation studies of the new, improved urine test been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal? If the test is reliable, why would the "the relevant international federations fail to support [the committee's] the opinion," a possibility suggested in the excerpt below.
Until the governing bodies and journalists provide complete and truthful information about these tests, I think we should all be skeptical whenever an athlete is publicly lynched.
-drewp
From RW:
Yegorova never failed the test, said Ljungqvist. The analysis of the B sample did not confirm what appeared to be in the A sample. According to Russian scientist Nikolay Durmanov, the Russian representative sent to observe the B sample analysis in the French lab, a bubble in the gel made the B sample analysis unreadable. The French made accusations that the Russians had tampered with the test. Durmanov emphatically denied the charges, noting that the French lab ran a second B analysis when he was not present that similarly failed. The result of this analytical fiasco was that the momentum building within the laboratory community to push for no notice, out-of-competition urine only testing was blunted by the IAAF declaration that it would follow the IOC mandate that both blood and urine had to be used to determine rhEPO use.
Perfecting of the technique of the urine test for rhEPO, plus the development of tests for other forms of rhEPO (darbepoetin) for the Salt Lake winter Olympics during the next year allowed those gathered in Atlanta to give their blessing to a stand alone urine test. The declaration won't have much impact, however, if the relevant international federations fail to support their opinion and pass the necessary legislation to allow for the no notice testing.