Britain confident of weeding out drug cheats

LONDON (Reuters) - Drug cheats will have nowhere to hide in Britain, the head of the country's anti-doping program said on Thursday.

Every British athlete competing at the Beijing Olympics next month will have been tested before departing and UK Sport, who currently run the program, are confident the country's anti-doping measures will win the battle against the cheats.

"From August 24 when the Olympic baton is passed to London, the eyes of the world will be on us and we need to demonstrate a no-compromise approach to doping," Andy Parkinson, acting director of Drug-Free Sport at UK Sport, said at the drug control centre in King's College, London.

With London hosting the 2012 Olympics, the government has acted to create a National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) which will operate independently of UK Sport.

The NADO will work more closely with law enforcement agencies to fight the trafficking and supply of prohibited substances. It will also lessen the responsibility on national governing bodies to bring doping cases themselves.

"The establishment of the NADO will help us build further on the solid anti-doping foundation we already have in place in the UK," Parkinson said.

"We are building an increasingly sophisticated, intelligence-based testing program, are one of the pioneers of what is to become the global approach to no-advance notice out-of-competition testing.

"We benefit from one of the best drug testing laboratories in the world. Put simply, any cheating athlete who thinks they can compete or train in the UK without getting caught should think again."

The King's College laboratory carried out 7,500 tests on athletes from 50 different sports last year and is part of a network of testing centers accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by )