Tests on pills, syringes and vials found in local athletes rooms' at the Australian Institute of Sport showed no traces of banned performance-enhancing drugs, anti-doping officials have said.
'Laboratory analysis of materials from the AIS was negative for traces of performance-enhancing substances,' Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority chairman Richard Ings told a media conference in Canberra.
Ings said the material, said by Australian Sports Minister Rod Kemp to have been found in AIS rooms in Canberra occupied by Australian weightlifters, were 'common vitamins and minerals'.
While not illegal, sports administrators believe injecting vitamins and minerals portrays athletes in a bad light.
The potentially embarrassing discovery became known at about the same time the Commonwealth Games opened on Wednesday, throwing a cloud over the hosts and the chequered past of the local weightlifting team.
