Olympics holds out against random tests

Gymnastics could become the sole Olympic sport to refuse random drugs tests in the run-up to the Sydney Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Thursday that 26 of the 28 Olympic international sports federations had signed up to its unannounced out-of-competition testing programme after the International Modern Pentathlon Union agreed to fall into line.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) -- the other sport yet to join the scheme -- "has informed WADA that it will join the programme very shortly," the WADA statement added.

Earlier this week WADA chairman Richard Pound said that athletes in sports which had not accepted random testing could be saddled with an "unnecessary stigma of suspicion...this is an unfair burden for them to carry."

The agency hopes to conduct 2,150 drug tests before the Sydney Games.