Anxious to avoid embarrassing drugs scandals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, anti-doping officials plan to trap potential cheats before the Games open.

Nearly 1,000 out-of-competition tests out of a total 3,500 scheduled for the Games will be conducted in the run-up to next August. For the first time, random tests will be conducted for the blood-boosting drug EPO (erythropoietin) with 600 scheduled.

"If the system works as it should prior to Games time we hope to have got the cheats before the Games begin and have a clean Olympics," said Panayiotis Tsaourchas from the 2004 Games anti-doping agency.

"No country will be able to avoid out-of-competition testing in the build-up to the Games."

"There will be greater concentration on the so-called danger sports where there's a higher risk of doping, such as strength events."

Tsaourchas, who identified wrestling, weightlifting, judo and athletics as the main targets, added: "The greatest difference with previous Olympics will be in terms of the volume of testing."

Out-of-competition testing was introduced into athletics, the major sport of the summer Games, in the year after the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the Ben Johnson drugs scandal.

Since 1989, the year which also marked the disintegration of the Soviet bloc and its state-organised doping programmes, 10 women's world records in championship events plus the 4x100 and 4x400 relay marks have remained unchanged.

JOHNSON'S SHADOW

Despite the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) stated determination to stamp out doping and the introduction of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Johnson's shadow still hovers over the Olympic movement.

The Canadian's mark of 9.79 in the 1988 Olympic 100 metres final, where he tested positive for drugs, remained the fastest time ever recorded until last year although it was erased from the official records in 1989.

Tim Montgomery, who clocked 9.78 last September, was again in the headlines this year when he and his partner, triple Olympic champion Marion Jones, were briefly aligned with Charlie Francis, the Canadian coach who introduced Johnson to drugs.

Then former U.S. Olympic Committee anti-doping official Wade Exum revealed that a number of athletes, including nine-times Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis had tested positive before the Seoul Games.

According to Exum, Lewis tested positive three times for banned stimulants found in cold cures at the 1988 Olympic trials. He was allowed to compete in Seoul when the U.S, governing body, under the rules in force at the time, said the levels were not significant enough to be performance-enhancing.

The subsequent unwelcome publicity surrounding Lewis, who was awarded the gold medal in Seoul after Johnson's disqualification, drew an angry response from International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack.

"The sport of athletics has always been honest and serious about dealing with doping," he said.

"But of course the problem with that approach is that, even though the actual percentage of athletes who have tested is tiny -- less than two percent of the total tested -- our sport has gained a reputation as a 'doping' sport.

"In the past, other sports were simply not testing and therefore there were no positive tests and no headlines about them."

UNIFIED CODE

Partly as a result of a series of drugs scandals at the 1998 Tour de France, the IOC set up WADA which has unified doping codes across sport.

"Athens will be the first Games where all testing is done in accordance with the new WADA anti-doping code," Tsaourchas said.

"It's a big step because until now the organisers at major events had procedures that weren't uniform.

"Therefore they were open to question. We want to make sure that the guilty don't get away with it and the innocent are not punished wrongly. Athens should be a model for future major events organisers."

IOC president Jacques Rogge has conceded that doping may never be totally eradicated from international sport.

But he can take some comfort from last year's Salt Lake City Winter Olympics where three cross-country skiers, including Spanish triple gold medallist Johan Muehlegg, tested positive for a drug even more effective than EPO which had been on the market only since the previous October.

"This is a very strong message to the athletes," said Arne Ljungqvist, now the head of the IOC medical commission. "This is a very important message for those who complain that we are always behind the drug cheats."