RIO FERDINAND

PANICKING Manchester United officials allegedly tried to cover Rio Ferdinand's tracks by making excuses for him to drugs testers, a disciplinary panel will be told next week.

The hearing into the star defender's failure to take the test will be told United officials informed testers that Ferdinand was conducting interviews for in-house television channel MUTV Manchester United Television
MUTV Marquette University Television .

But confusion has arisen because conflicting evidence apparently suggests Ferdinand had already left the club's Carrington training ground.

The UK Sport drugs testers have been criticised for not sticking tightly to Ferdinand's side after he was informed he would be required to produce a urine sample.

But evidence that will be put before the three-man disciplinary panel is believed to state testers were twice informed Ferdinand had been forced to disappear from their view because he was doing MUTV interviews.

The secluded training ground is tightly monitored by security staff and a gateman checks every vehicle entering and leaving the premises.

Conflicting statements from others close to the pounds 30million defender cast doubt on the assertion he was required for MUTV interviews on September 23, the day of the offence.

Ben Johnson: Canada's shame

Hero to goat.

Johnson captured the imagination of Canadians on Sept. 27, 1988, when he won the 100-metre sprint title in a world-record time of 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Olympics. To make the victory even sweeter, Johnson captured the gold medal by handily defeating American rival Carl Lewis.

The euphoria of Johnson's win didn't last, however, when it was found the Canadian tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol.

Johnson's claim that the positive test stemmed from a spiked herbal drink the night before the race was unfounded (not that his positive test was any surprise, considering his inflated deltoid muscles and jaundiced eyes, but how many Canadians wanted to believe that?).

Johnson was subsequently stripped of his gold medal and world record and banned from competition for two years. The disgrace of the event was a black eye on Canadian amateur sport and pushed the drugs-in-sport issue to the forefront like never before.

Nearly 15 years later, it was discovered that several American track athletes tested positive for drugs before those same Seoul Games. Allegedly among them was Lewis, who was awarded the gold medal after Johnson's disqualification.

Pan Am 1983: the dawn of drug testing

The modern age of drug testing essentially started at the 1983 Pan Am Games in Caracas, Venezuela. A team of scientists, led by chemist and drug-testing chief Manfred Donike of Germany, developed a new method for steroid testing in anticipation of two large international sporting events that year, the Pan Games and world track and field championships.

What followed paved the way for drug testing for years to come.

Canadian weightlifter Guy Greavette was at the centre of what became the first international drug scandal in sports. Greavette, along with teammate Michel Viau, was stripped of his medals and handed a two-year suspension after testing positive for steroids.

The Pan Am drug testing caught a lot of athletes by surprise. After Greavette's positive test, a dozen American athletes in various events suddenly withdrew from the competition and returned to the U.S., and at least another dozen athletes from other countries also left without explanation.

Nineteen athletes in total failed drug tests at the 1983 Pan Ams.

Greavette's weightlifting career never recovered, though he is still involved in the sport as a volunteer coach and executive director of B.C. Weightlifting.

In 2001, Greavette told CBC's Sports Journal that he felt he and some other athletes were made examples of while many athletes from other countries got off without penalty.