Eduardo De Rose, chairman of the Medical Commission of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), told the PASO General Assembly here that 40 per cent of overall controls would be out-of-competition.

This compares with just five per cent at the 2011 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games in Guadalajara - an eight-fold increase.

The move is in keeping with the updated philosophy of anti-doping practitioners, which places a far greater onus than in the past on carefully targeted testing designed to maximise the chances of catching drug cheats out.

US sprinter Tyson Gay is one prominent Pan American athlete to have been implicated in a doping scandal in recent years ©Getty Images



De Rose indicated that the Toronto 2015 anti-doping programme would consist of some 1,500 urine tests, in and out of competition, 320 tests for erythropoietin (EPO), 258 blood controls and 167 biological passport readings.

The Games will use the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratory in Montreal.

Toronto 2015 is set to be the first Pan American Games to be staged under the new World Anti-Doping Code, which has enshrined stiffer penalties for the worst offences, but also increased the scope for plea bargaining.

The Pan American Games, to be staged between July 10 and 26, will feature upwards of 6,000 athletes competing in 36 sports; the dates for the Parapan Am Games are August 7 to 15.

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