UK Sport are confident their new £1million testing initiative can help ensure the British team will have a "true performance'' at the Beijing Olympics.

As part of the largest programme in the organisation's history, more than 1,500 tests - on both blood and urine - will be conducted alongside an improved education programme which includes face-to-face workshops, a dedicated website for athletes as well as a support telephone line during the Games themselves, which start on August 8.

UK Sport aim to test every athlete selected for Team GB at least once in the run-up to the showpiece sporting event, which is to be held in China for the first time.

The initiative is backed by the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations, who have agreed for the majority of tests to be conducted with no advance notice at training camps or other out-of-competition destinations.

Director of drug-free sport at UK Sport John Scott maintains the governing body are doing all they can to ensure cheats do not prosper in Beijing.

"We have been a world leader in putting down a marker that we will not tolerate any athlete joining the Olympic or Paralympic teams if they have not made themselves available for testing and been tested,'' Scott said at today's

press briefing following the launch of the initiative at UK Sport's central

London headquarters.

"Our core priority is to make sure athletes have no desire to dope, realise the risk they are running if they even consider it and obviously to be able to give some assurance to the public that the performance of the British athletes is a true performance.

"We firmly believe the vast majority are clean, although there clearly are some athletes, coaches and medics who do not share that philosophy.

"What we want to do is demonstrate through a rigorous pre-Games testing programme that we are doing everything we can to stop anyone who is cheating getting the privilege of going to the Games.

"Is it going to be 100% successful? I don't know. We are sending out very strong messages and using what we hope is peer pressure and the support structure to discourage any athlete from that route.

"But yes, I accept there is some degree of scepticism in the system and this is something which athletes who do complete clear find very frustrating.

"That is why we need good, strong ambassadors who show what can be achieved without recourse to drugs.''

Scott accepted the fight is increasingly difficult given the complex chemical technology being used by drugs cheats.

"It is a battle where, theoretically, the testers are always playing catch-up because you are pursuing something which is being done illegally,'' he said.

"There will still be some athletes who think they can beat the system, but the likelihood of them being able to get away with it is being closed down all the time.

"We have to move the focus away from pure testing of athletes to more investigation and trying to assemble information so that you are hopefully beginning to get ahead of the game.''

British sprinters Mark Lewis-Francis and Simeon Williamson have both admitted they have missed two random tests - and face being banned for a year if they miss a third.

World 400metre champion Christine Ohuruogu and world triathlon champion Tim Don have both served suspensions - of a year and three months respectively - for being unavailable on three occasions when testers visited.

Former European 100m gold medalist Dwain Chambers has returned to competitive action following his two-year suspension after testing positive for designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), but remains banned from the British Olympic team.

Scott believes the new initiative is as much about making athletes aware of the risks they face as well as catching those who purposely seek to cheat the system.

"We are also putting a big emphasis on education,'' Scott stressed.

"It is absolutely essential all the athletes understand what their responsibilities and accountabilities are, as well as what the processes will be in and around the Games.

"The IOC [International Olympic Committee] will be working with WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] and will, if necessary, be testing athletes outside of the [Olympic] Village, so there are some extremely important messages we are getting through to them.

"We do not want any repeats of inadvertent doping, so we are putting out as many messages as we can to both the support personnel and the athletes directly.

"It does not take away any of the athletes individual responsibility. It is just a way of supporting them.

"Athletes are in regular contact with one another - and they need to constantly reinforce a zero-tolerance attitude, by not turning a blind eye if they see something going on and confronting it, then sharing that information.''

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