Belgian bodybuilders flee drug testers
Last Updated: Monday, May 18, 2009 | 4:00 PM ET
The Associated Press
The Belgian bodybuilding championship has been cancelled after doping officials showed up and all the competitors fled.
The bodybuilders just grabbed their gear and ran off when a doping official came into the room, according to officials.
"I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again," said doping official Hans Cooman.
Twenty bodybuilders were entered in the weekend competition.
Cooman said the sport has a history of doping "and this incident didn't do its reputation any good."
Belgium's bodybuilding federation did not dispute the facts, but said it could not explain why the competitors had suddenly rushed off.
"There is only one conclusion I can think of and that is doping," Cooman said.
During testing of bodybuilding events last year, doping authorities of northern Belgium's Flanders region found that three-quarters of the competitors tested positive.
