Conspiracy over new steroid been going on for year

Chemists, coaches and athletes have probably been conspiring to cheat with the new designer steroid THG for at least a year, the most respected anti-doping expert in world sport said today.

Arne Ljungqvist, the head of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, also said the recent conspiracy in the United States with banned tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) was almost certain to involve athletes from other countries.

Speaking before news of Dwain Chambers leaked out, Ljungqvist, who is also track and field's anti-drugs supremo, told Standard Sport: "It remains to be investigated but I would not be surprised if it has been going on for a year or more."

"Athletics is a sort of international community. There may also be some international ramifications. It would surprise me if there were not."

THG is set to turn into the biggest drugs scandal in sport since the late 1980s when Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and a year later the Berlin Wall fell to reveal a systematic drug-taking programme in former Communist East Germany.

Yesterday the IAAF, the governing body of athletics, announced that it would re-test all drug samples from the world championships in Paris in August.