As fewer Chinese athletes use illegal drugs to boost their performance because of the country's zero tolerance policy in sports doping, an alarming number of teenagers have turned to banned substances for an edge in college entrance examinations.

A recent survey by the Beijing University of Sports Culture disclosed a horrific fact: the rate of positive cases among young athlete-students is higher than that among professional athletes.

The survey shows 4.68 percent of the 4,158 students admitted having used banned drugs at least once and 11.6 percent are considering using them.

The survey, carried out by China's top sports university over a two-year period from 2002 to 2004, covered 4,500 students from middle schools, sports schools and colleges in 14 Chinese cities, said a member of the research team, who asked not to be named.

The team received 4,158 valid questionnaires, he said.

"More and more school students begin to use drugs in order to earn high marks in examinations such as the college entrance exam, " said Wang Baoliang, the top discipline inspection official of the State Sports Administration of China (SSAC).

"The percentage of positive cases is much higher than that of professional athletes. It is a very dangerous tendency and we must take the issue seriously," he added.

In 2004, the Chinese Olympic Committee carried out a total of 4,653 dope tests on the country's professional athletes and 17 turned out positive.

China had been tainted by accusations of widespread doping when seven Chinese swimmers tested positive for steroids at the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima. Four years later, a swimmer and her coach were caught carrying banned substances, while another four failed tests during the world championships in Perth, Australia.

But China has stepped up its fight against drug cheats since then and the positive cases have dropped from 1.8% in 1990 to around 0.4% in recent years.

In the face of the new doping problem, Wang Baoliang said the SSAC will introduce doping controls to all national junior sporting events.

"Whoever uses banned drugs will receive due punishment," he warned.

Wang said the SSAC would combine education and punishment in preventing the youth from drug use.

"The young students are the hopes of the nation, so we will put more focus on letting them know the harm of taking drugs," he said.

Source: Xinhua