The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to retest the samples collected during the Beijing Olympic Games this summer as of January next year.

The re-analysis mainly targeted at endurance events in cycling, rowing, swimming and athletics, said the IOC in a news release sent to Xinhua on Tuesday.

"The tests are due to start in January 2009, and the first results are expected to be communicated at the end of the first quarter," it said.

Four hundred blood samples will be retested for CERA, a new version of the endurance-enhancing hormone EPO. The blood test was recently developed by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Paris and used to retest samples from the Tour de France.

Four riders from Tour de France turned positive for the advanced form of EPO.

One hundred urine samples will be further analysed for insulin, a hormone that can enhance performance by influencing the glycogen metabolism. A urine test was recently perfected by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Cologne.

All the samples from the Beijing Games have now been sent to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne after they left Beijing in mid-October.

IOC decided that samples from Beijing will be stored for eight years and could be retested at any time should fully validated tests to detect new substances or methods become available.

Some 4,770 doping tests were carried out in Beijing in the framework of the largest ever testing programme for an Olympic Games.

The tests included 3,801 urine and 969 blood tests. Urine tests included 817 EPO tests, and blood tests covered 471 human Growth Hormone (hGH) tests.

All the tests covered the 29-day period from 27 July until 24 August 2008.

Athletes qualified for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were tested by the World Anti-Doping Agency and BOCOG under the authority of the IOC. As a general rule, all top five finishers, plus a further two, were tested.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2008)