The number of doping tests at the Beijing Olympics will increase from 3,700 in Athens 2004 to 4,500, and the biggest equipment supplier of China's anti-doping laboratory, Agilent Technologies, has vowed to offer top class services for the doping-test laboratory.
"During the Olympic Games, about 10 of our certified technical staff will stand by 24 hours a day to ensure the smooth running of the doping tests," said Mu Yiping, Greater China country operation manager of Agilent Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis.
"Besides human resources support, we will also prepare two or three backups for each piece of equipment to cope with any emergency. Those backups will be installed in the lab as well for the first time," she added.
For more than 30 years, Agilent, the world's premier measurement company and a leader in communication technology, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis, has been a leading provider of analytical instruments for drug testing in sports.
Agilent supplied drug-testing equipment to the first Olympic Games to conduct doping tests in 1972. Since then, it has become the main provider of doping-test equipment for the Olympics and other major sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup.
China's anti-doping effort has progressed considerably over the last 20 years and its doping test lab has passed the examination of the World Anti-Doping Agency for 17 successive years.
In order to better serve the Beijing Games, a new lab has just been put into use in the capital city. There is three times as many pieces of equipment in the new lab compared to the old one and 90 percent of it comes from Agilent.
"Our cooperation with China Doping Control Center (CDCC) started as early as 1990, when Beijing hosted the Asian Games. When Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, we knew that we would have closer cooperation with CDCC," said Mu. "In the 1990s, the lab could figure out about 100 banned substances in four categories. That number has now risen to over 200 substances in nine categories."
Besides the doping test, Agilent also provides equipment for monitoring food security in the city. The equipment can monitor food security from farm to table.
Mu said that in order to ensure the food safety of the host city a test for banned substances was also introduced for the food supplied during the Beijing Games.
"The food security check standards in China is almost 10 times stricter than in Europe, so all the foreign guest here for the Games can trust the food in China," she said.
