A Biological Passport scheme for swimmers is ready to be rubber stamped by the ruling FINA Bureau after the first "seven or eight" blood tests were conducted at the 14th World Championships during the first week of action here in Shanghai. 

In Dubai at the world short-course championships last December, Dr Andrew Pipe, chairman of the FINA Doping Control Review Board, explained why blood testing would not be conducted at the event: there was little usefulness in single-moment  blood testing. What was required was a longitudinal profiling system.

Today in Shanghai he confirmed that a Biological Passport scheme devised by experts was in awaiting FINA Bureau approval. The Canadian doctor hoped that the scheme would be approved before the championships end on Sunday July 31 so that the first "seven or eight" blood tests - out of 115 tests altogether during the first week of action - could be used as the first stamp in the athlete passport scheme.

Blood samples used for profiling would be used to detect the likes of Erythropoietin (EPO), Human Growth Hormone (HGH), continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA), self-administration blood products and any methods in use to cheat by boosting oxygen-carrying blood cells. 

"The whole protocol needs approving," said Dr Pipe. "The advantage of profiling is that we gain greater efficiency and effectiveness of testing." 

Same day results may be possible in future because technology used in blood testing can be kept on site at a championships, with no need for shipping to far-flung laboratories. That would make testing more financially viable, while international passport schemes could be tied into to national schemes that were operated on the same basis, he noted.

One adduced cost may be freezing: all samples will be frozen and kept for future testing but the longer samples are frozen the higher the cost.

All blood tests conducted in the first week of competition relate to events in which blood manipulation would provide a cheat with advantage. Open water events were in focus. Racing gets underway in the pool tomorrow morning, with swimmers being asked to provide blood for the first time at a world championships since 2005.