There are drug tests carried out in almost all modern day sporting events. Although we tend to always hear the contrary through the media, it is in fact a common fact that the majority of competitors actually use performance enhancing drugs prior to or even right up to an event. There is nothing abnormal in wanting to get that competitive edge over your opponent and this normally tends to be anabolic steroids along with a concrete plan to "cheat the test"

Even with power lifting and body-building competitions it is common place for drug testing to be carried out so that everyone is competing at the same level, apart from the individual's personal talent in that sport. But the truth of the matter is that the winner tends to be the guy who juices and beats the test. It may not seem to be fair but it's just the way things are in today's competitive sporting world.

Yes, there are many sporting names out there that find this practise an unfair advantage, but at the end of the day it's down to the individual, who knows what the consequences are if he gets found to be positive during a competition. Another interesting part of drug testing is how people avoid the test, but for the moment we are going to concentrate on methods that can be employed to beat the test.

Types of Testing Procedure: During athletics meetings the more common body fluid that is tested for the presence of drugs is normally urine. We will be concentrating on dealing with the different procedures that are carried out to test this body fluid, although such procedures carried out to assess blood for the presence of illegal substances are practically the same.

There are several types of laboratory test procedures that are put in use to detect the presence of performance enhancers and we need first of all to see just how they function. Rule number one is to find out exactly which type of sample analysing will be used, well in advance of the event so that you can start to put your plan together.

Gas Chromatography(GC): This is a method that uses a separation technique to divide up a urine sample back into its component chemical parts. These substances are carried through chromatographic columns by a gas. chromatography is just a way of separating mixtures of compounds from each other, and leads to identification in the majority of cases. The chemical compounds in the urine can be identified by their 'retention time' on the chromatographic column - the retention time is unique for every individual drug, and therefore allows identification.

Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry(GC/MS): This test uses a mix of gas chromatography, proceeded by mass spectrometry on the chemicals separated from the urine on the chromatographic column. The mass spectrometry permits the exact identification of any drugs found present in the urine by actually forming an exact 'molecular fingerprint' of the chemicals found present. That means in effect the chemical structure of the drugs that are present (the atoms present within the drug, and in the order they are actually bonded together) results by using this method. The problem is that this test is extremely expensive to use and only the richer sporting bodies would use it. The cost of the test is round about one hundred pounds per sample (around $200 US).

It is quite fair to say that these two test are reasonably accurate, although there is always room for human error. One example would be due to poor cleaning after the previous test and if that sample should have contained illegal drugs...This would obviously cause contamination and could lead to an incorrect positive test. So in the case that you are found to be positive, make sure you do protest, especially if you were clean or should have been.

High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC): A further technique that is of interest as it is often used on test samples which are suspected of containing steroids. It's very similar to GC, apart from that a the carrier is a liquid for the sample through a chromatographic column instead of a gas. HPLC is both sensitive and easier to perform than GC. It is generally used to check up on results from other tests that are not quite so sensitive.