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A live-streamed debate between the university’s Professor Yannis Pitsiladis and the University of Stirling’s Dr Paul Dimeo, an expert in drug abuse in sport, was chaired by Dr Michael Hutchinson, British racing cyclist and writer with Cycling Weekly.

Professor Pitsiladis, Professor of Sport and Exercise Science, is at the forefront of a new anti-doping test that he is confident will prove a more effective way to catch cheats. Instead of looking for traces of illegal drugs in urine and blood samples, he is looking at identifying molecular traces of doping.

Professor Pitsiladis said the debate and visit by IOC officials was a tribute to the cutting edge research the university was undertaking at its anti-doping research facilities in Eastbourne. He said: “The visit by the IOC and some of our sponsors was a perfect opportunity to showcase our excellent research and facilities.

Left to right: Prof Pitsiladis, British racing cyclist Dr Michael Hutchinson, and sport doping researcher Dr Paul Dimeo from the University of Stirling.

Left to right back row: Professor Uğur Erdener, Chair of International Olympic Committee, IOC Medical and Scientific Commission; Maurice Slapak CBE, consultant surgeon and visiting professorships at Warsaw, Yale, Athens, Pisa, and Nairobi; Dr Richard Budgett, IOC Medical and Scientific Director; and Professor Pitsiladis. Front row: Dr Guan Wang, Senior Research Fellow, and Antonia Karanikolou, PhD student.

“The day was a great success and we must now build on this promise for the future.”

The IOC delegation was led by Professor Uğur Erdener, IOC Member and Chair of the IOC’s Medical and Scientific Commission, and Dr Richard Budgett OBE, Olympian and IOC’s Medical and Scientific Director.

Also in attendance was Dr Lars Engebretsen, the IOC’s Head of Medical Sciences, and anti-doping experts from around the world.

Representatives of leading biotechnology companies including Dr Rosenow Carsten from and Dr Catherine Scerri from Affymetrix were also present at the event. The companies are involved in specialist state-of-the-art genomic technology and the next generation of anti-doping solutions as proposed by Professor Pitsiladis.