Track, Field Drug-Testing Start Delayed

The Athletics Congress has delayed the start of a year-round drug-testing program for track and field in the United States four months until Oct. 1 because more time is needed to train the people who will be collecting samples, officials announced today.

The executive committee of TAC, the national governing body for the sport, voted this week to delay the scheduled July 1 start of the program because officials still are negotiating with a national health care corporation and with a major public accounting firm over their participation in the program, officials said.

The health care firm will coordinate collection of samples for testing, usually urine, and the accounting firm will randomly select the athletes to be tested, TAC said.

Edwin Moses, the two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 400 meter hurdles and chairman of TAC’s testing protocol committee, said the postponement gives the organization a chance to implement the program “more completely and carefully.”

“For the past six months we’ve worked diligently to ensure that the drug-testing program is implemented properly,” Moses said. “We want to be sure of the integrity of the process. We want to make sure that all decisions concerning this program are made cautiously.”

Training Time Needed

The program could have been implemented on the July 1 target date, he said, but the health care agency TAC is negotiating with needs additional time to train its staff in the methods of sample collection.

Plans call for more than 100 sample collection centers throughout the country.

Implementing the program now also would be difficult with the summer track season already under way and virtually all of the top American athletes competing in Europe, TAC said. Testing approved by the International Amateur Athletic Federation already is in place at most of the meets on the European circuit.

Under the TAC program, the top 15 athletes in each event will be subject to random, year-round testing, with each athlete having a 75% chance of being tested during a one-year period.