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The real,- BERLIN-MARATHON has joined forces with four of the worlds leading

big city marathons, London, Boston, Chicago and New York City, in signing a

declaration aimed at ensuring the integrity of the sport of marathon running

through a world-wide acceptance of blood testing, in and out of competition. It

is believed many other international marathons and road races will follow their

lead.

The seven point declaration calls up on the IAAF and each of their

respective governing bodies to allow for blood testing at all sanctioned events

to be implemented as soon as possible and for all necessary changes to be made

to their rules by August 2001. See the full declaration as attached.

Horst Milde, Race Director of the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON commented:

"The only way to end the speculation that drugs and other prohibited

techniques are used to enhance performance in our sport is to introduce blood

testing, and this has to be introduced world-wide both in and out of

competition. This united move by the top five big city marathons is a major

step in the right direction. We now need the national and world governing

bodies to work with us to achieve this."

Declaration on Doping and Blood Testing

We the undersigned hereby agree and declare as follows: -

1. The use of drugs and other prohibited techniques to enhance the

performance of athletes in marathon racing is contrary to the whole ethos of

our sport and we deplore those who use, encourage, administer or facilitate the

use of such drugs or techniques.

2. We note that in marathon running the drugs and techniques which are

likely to be of greatest assistance cannot currently be detected by urine

testing and that blood testing has a better prospect of detecting those

committing doping offences. We further note that the Sydney Olympic Games

initiated such tests.

3. We believe that in order to ensure the integrity of the sport of marathon

running, blood tests, both in and out of competition, are required. We make no

allegations about whether such drugs and techniques are used, or to what extent

they are used, by athletes in our sport but for the protection of all runners

and the assurance of the public, blood testing is an absolute necessity.

4. We call upon the IAAF and our national governing bodies to allow for

blood testing at all sanctioned events as soon as possible and to make any

necessary changes to their rules by no later than the 31st August 2001.

5. We pledge that, subject to national laws, once the rules permitting blood

testing have been ratified by the IAAF and our national federations we shall

work with the relevant authorities with a view to ensuring that blood tests are

carried out at our marathon events in accordance with those rules.

6. We further believe that to be fully effective, merely conducting blood

testing at events is insufficient and we therefore also call upon the World

Anti Doping Agency to conduct out of competition blood testing, without notice,

throughout the year.

7. We shall co-operate together to encourage other marathons and road races

to adopt this declaration in respect of their events.

Signed by:

Berlin - Horst Milde

Boston - Guy Morse

Chicago - Carey Pinkowski

London - Nick Bitel

New York City - Allan Steinfeld