/ 20 May 2010

UFS to keep tabs on World Cup doping

The South African Doping Control Laboratory based at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein boasts new state-of-the-art equipment worth R3.9-million to perform doping tests for next month’s 2010 Fifa World Cup.

The laboratory is housed in UFS’s pharmacology department and has done doping analyses for many international sport events in South Africa and elsewhere, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the Sevens Rugby World Cup in Dubai.

The World Anti-Doping Agency selected the laboratory to be the World Cup’s official doping control facility, Dr Pieter van der Merwe, head of the laboratory, said this week.