SWEDISH police found suspected doping equipment, including material for blood transfusions, yesterday near two hotels used by teams competing in the European Championships, which ended in Gothenburg on Sunday.
Needles, syringes and suspected illegal substances were discovered in one plastic bag on a street and another nearby contained equipment for blood transfusion.
One bag was covered in Russian writing, as were some of the syringes inside. It was found close to the Hotel Opalen, where athletes from Russia, Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina were staying.
Although there is no evidence that Russian competitors used the material, Professor Arne Ljungqvist, the Swedish president of the IAAF medical commission, said last night: “I am not surprised over the Russian letters on the bag. I feel disgust.”
Police said that the equipment was sufficient for several athletes, but a spokesman said: “These days, it is difficult to tie anyone to the crime. We cannot use DNA if it is a foreign citizen.”
Advertisement
Also in Sweden yesterday, Patrick Sjöberg, the former world high jump record-holder, and four other present or former athletes were arrested on suspicion of using social drugs at a party. Sjöberg later admitted taking cocaine.
Darren Campbell has clarified why he refused to join in a victory lap with the rest of the Great Britain sprint relay squad on the final day of the championships. The anchor leg had been run by Dwain Chambers, returning from a two-year ban for taking a designer steroid, an action that had also cost Britain 4 x 100 metres relay medals at the 2002 European Championships and 2003 World Championships.
Campbell said that it would have been hypocritical to celebrate with Chambers, who, he feels, has a duty to expose the people who introduced him to performance-enhancing substances. “It is not a personal attack on Dwain,” Campbell, who was a member of both those disqualified relay teams, said. “I made it clear from the outset I don’t think that Dwain was solely accountable. He was taken to America and got embroiled in something. He owes it to the sport to expose them.
“If he came out and helped the sport and made sure that no one else got involved in that situation, how could I not respect him for rectifying his error?”