Coaches to be targeted in anti-doping investigation

More focus will be put on coaches in future doping case investigations as Chinese anti-doping workers seek to update their anti-doping methods.

Wang Xinzhai, an official from China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA), told Xinhua Monday that they are going to set up a database that includes information of several thousand coaches in the agency's recent reform.

The information collection is in a very priliminary stage as CHINADA made several changes to comply with the new World Anti-Doping Code, which goes into effect on Jan 1, 2015.

"The new Code required more efforts on investigation, so we need to make adjustments," said Wang, head of the newly established "legal matter and investigation" office of CHINADA.

"Previous researches indicated that coaches have the most influence in athletes' decision making in terms of doping control," said Wang. "That's why we start with this group."

Wang and his colleagues will be faced with a huge load of work as they sort out information of several thousand provicial and national team coaches from 15 high risk sports.

"We already made evaluations on all the sports and picked 15 high risk ones," he said. The sports will include athletics, swimming, cycling, taekwondo, rowing, weightlifting and so on.

"Then there will be the information collection. We need to know their coaching history, their athletes and whether they have ever related to any doping cases," Wang said.

"Obviously this is not a task we can handle singlehandedly. We must ask provicial sport bureaus for help," he added.

Even if provicial bureaus do give assistance, as far as Wang concerned, how to ensure all the information accurate and true remains a headache.

"This is kind of a groundbreaking thing. We need to study how to keep the database accurate," he added.

Besides new databases, the agency also plans to pump up its investigation force.

Wang revealed that some of his colleagues will attend the training session of the Central Discipline and Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China, China's discipline watchdog that already brought many officials under investigation in the country's anti-graft campaign.

Wang also hoped professionals from the police force will be interested in joining them.