S. Korean pro basketball league to start drug testing

SEOUL, July 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's basketball governing body said Thursday
it will start drug testing professional players from the upcoming 2009-2010
season, joining a nationwide effort to keep pro sports clean.
The plan, adopted by the Korean Basketball League (KBL) board, requires two
randomly picked players from each team to give urine samples. Test methods and
frequency and other details will be decided at the next board meeting, league
officials said.
Athletes found to have used banned substances for the first time will be given a
warning. Second-time offenders will be suspended, they said.
The KBL, launched in 1997, will be the third professional sports in South Korea
to start the doping test on domestic and foreign athletes following baseball and
football.
Each team is allowed to have two foreigners in the 10-team KBL.
"Procedure is important as we introduce the test for the first time," Choi
Joon-gil, head of KBL's administrative affairs, said. "We will sign an agreement
with the Korea Anti-Doping Agency (KADA) and discuss details."
The football K-League announced in May it will hold random doping tests as well
as anti-doping educations for players and coaches, while the Korea Baseball
Organization (KBO) who launched the drug test on South Korean players in 2007
expanded it to foreigners.
The trend follows an expose by a retired baseball star in his autobiography that
pro baseballers used performance-enhancing drugs.
Early this year, two foreign basketball players were ousted from the Korean
league for smoking marijuana.
brk@yna.co.kr
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