ON THE SIDELINES : Official Says He Feared Assault in Drug Testing of Canadian Athletes

The man in charge of making sure Canadian athletes were not taking steroids feared that he would be physically assaulted by certain top track officials if he carried out surprise drug testing, a federal inquiry was told today.

“It was my responsibility, but I was not about to get into a physical confrontation with guys who were bigger than I am,” Tom MacWilliam told the inquiry into the use of drugs in amateur sport.

MacWilliam, an anti-doping consultant for the federal government and the Canadian Track and Field Assn., was referring to a random drug test of the country’s national sprint team scheduled in 1985. He said the test was strongly opposed by Coach Charlie Francis and Gerard Mach, both paid employees of the track association.

He agreed with inquiry lawyer Robert Armstrong that coaches and athletes on Canada’s national track team were opposed to surprise, out-of-competition drug testing, even though it was the stated policy of the association, track’s national governing body.