Mr. Gareth R. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussion she has had with UK Sport about the number of drug tests on British triathletes. [25529]
§ Mr. CabornMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has had no direct discussions on the number of drug tests on British triathletes, although she receives UK Sport's annual reports of the testing programmes for all sports covered by their anti-doping programme.
Mr. Gareth R. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions UK Sport has had with the International Triathlon Union about drug testing; and if she will make a statement. [25530]
§ Mr. CabornUK Sport works in partnership with the national federations in the UK to deliver testing programmes both in and out of competition. There are a small number of events in the UK which fall under the international federation's responsibility and on these occasions UK Sport liaises with the international federation direct. The last such event was the London Triathlon in September 1998.
In 2000–01 triathlon was introduced to the Olympic Games in Sydney. The focus of the testing programme was on the pre-Olympic testing of UK triathletes both in 975W the UK and in Australia. This programme was arranged in partnership with the British Triathlon Association. In 2001–02, so far two triathlon events in the UK have been tested and one World Class Squad Training Day making a total of 37 tests to date.
Discussions are on-going about triathlon introducing an out of competition testing programme for individual triathletes, and the British Triathlon Association have been actively working towards increasing their anti-doping efforts.