World swimming governing body FINA has announced that it will retest blood samples taken from swimmers at last year’s World Championships in Rome for evidence of doping.

The governing body is looking for traces of plasticisers left in the blood from blood bags.

FINA took the decision at a meeting in Bangkok, following none of the 391 blood samples taken from the July and August meeting testing positive.

There were also 162 samples screened for the blood-boosting hormone EPO at the same event.

The governing body is contemplating storing blood samples for eight years after competition and also under consideration is the use of a ‘biological passport’ programme to monitor swimmers’ blood profiles for evidence of doping.

Source: Sport Industry Group