The Sydney summit, attended by representatives from nations such as Australia, South Africa and the United States, has no power to force sporting bodies to adopt the ban.
“Governments do not want to run sport,” Vanstone said, “but it is clear that we can help in delivering better outcomes through education, reduction in the supply of illicit drugs and scientific testing research.”
The sports ministers agreed to support the IOC’s new World Anti-Doping Agency, which was formed last week with the backing of the European Union but without the support of the United States, who feel WADA is not independent enough to tackle the problem.
“WADA can provide international leadership and co-ordination for a range of anti-doping activities,” the sports ministers said in a joint statement. Sports Ministers from 24 nations yesterday issued a unified call for two-year bans across all sports for first-time doping offences and for year-round random drug testing.

The ministers, meeting at the Drugs In Sport summit in Sydney, backed the International Olympic Committee’s new anti-doping organisation, but agreed it must be transparent, accountable and have wider representation, especially from athletes.
“This summit recognises that we want gold medals to be won on the track, not in the test tube,” the Australian justice minister and chair of the summit, Amanda Vanstone, said. Sports Ministers from 24 nations yesterday issued a unified call for two-year bans across all sports for first-time doping offences and for year-round random drug testing. Betting on the game had been heavy and that may have led to the heated emotions. Unlike the Swallows-Bush Bucks match, that game was not sanctioned by the South African Football Association..

I feel like throwing in the towel.”
Gambling has been behind some soccer violence in South Africa, but da Silva said he doubted that was the motive in his case.
Last February, a soccer referee shot and killed a player during a match after the player, angry over a disputed goal, lunged at him with a knife. Even though his Johannesburg-based team has lost only two of 10 games since da Silva became coach four months ago, he said he has received death threats.
After one loss, police had to protect him from angry fans who were storming the field.
“When I lose, they’re coming like a mob and want to kill me,” said da Silva, a native of Rio de Janeiro.
Da Silva, who before coming to the Swallows coached the Khorfakkan team in the United Arab Emirates, was meeting with team executives Thursday to discuss his security.
“I really feel uneasy,” he said in a phone interview “My life is at stake here. The players decided to stick with the game, falling behind 1-0 but then scoring to tie after da Silva phoned again to say he had been released in a shopping center parking lot.
Police said they have opened an abduction and attempted hijacking investigation but have made no arrests yet.
Da Silva said he thinks the kidnappers, who stole 1,500 rands (dlrs 245) from him, are fans dissatisfied with his coaching. Among recent cases: gunmen fired into the home of a soccer official, and a referee killed a player during an unregulated soccer match.
Da Silva said that during the Wednesday afternoon kidnapping, the assailants forced him to phone two of his technical assistants as the Swallows began playing the Bush Bucks in a Castle Premier League clash, and tell them to leave the game.
They did. “They pushed me to the back seat of the car and said they were going to shoot me if I didn’t keep quiet.”
South African soccer has been spared the hooliganism that plagues European venues, but this incident shows that crime is increasingly hitting sports in this country.

A soccer coach from Brazil said he was ready to “throw in the towel” and leave South African sports after being kidnapped by two men and prevented from coaching his team during a game.

“It was a scary situation,” said Swallows coach Walter da Silva after his three-hour ordeal. A soccer coach from Brazil said he was ready to “throw in the towel” and leave South African sports after being kidnapped by two men and prevented from coaching his team during a game. Fleeting Mandate, trained by Paul Webber, won this year’s renewal of the two-and-a-half mile contest, beating 13 rivals for a first prize of £20,765.. The Lincolnshire course will hold the £50,000 Summer Special Handicap Chase on Saturday 22 July.

“He’d just fed the mares in the field, walked in and that was it.”
* Market Rasen is to raise its profile by staging its most valuable race ever next July. The latter, the regular rider of Winnie The Witch, including in that County Hurdle win, and now a trainer in his own right, confirmed the news. The Willie Mullins-trained chaser is now a best-priced 6-1 joint-favourite for the race with Coral, whose spokesman, Simon Clare, said: “We laid Florida Pearl at all rates from 9-1 down to 6-1 during a crazy half-hour this morning before the money dried up.
“A tipping service recommended See More Business this time last year so its followers are playing with bookies money.”
Ladbrokes reported that money had come “thick and fast” for Florida Pearl and cut the seven-year-old to 9-2 favourite from 7-1, while the Tote and William Hill are both 9-2 from 10-1 and 8-1 respectively.
Florida Pearl finished third to See More Business and Go Ballistic in this year’s renewal of the Gold Cup and made a winning return this term at Down Royal this month.
Ken Bridgwater, who trained the popular hurdler Winnie The Witch, a winner at the Cheltenham Festival in 1991, died suddenly yesterday at the age of 66.
Bridgwater, who was based in Solihull, leaves a widow, Mary Ann, to whom he was married for 41 years, and three sons, Kenneth, Gary and David. No Retreat, who had been 16-1 for Newbury, will also miss the race and indeed the whole of the season after sustaining a leg strain.
These prime examples of the pitfalls of ante-post speculation came too late for some punters who, almost inexplicably, yesterday plunged on Florida Pearl for next year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The reason why some diehards dipped into their pockets on a Wednesday in November for a race run next March seems to be that they were told to by a tipping line – and so they did.