2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Latest-generation BEREG KIT anti-doping bottles delivered to Rio Olympics organizers
Zurich, Switzerland, 3 August 2016: The organizers of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have taken delivery of the latest generation of BEREG KIT anti-doping bottles from Berlinger Special AG of Switzerland. This latest version of these special bottles, which are used to prevent tampering with anti-doping samples, has been manufactured in Switzerland since the end of April 2016 under the tightest security conditions, and is globally acknowledged to be the most secure of its kind. The new BEREG KIT bottles have been in use with various anti-doping agencies around the world for some weeks now, and will also be used in the anti-doping tests at the Rio Summer Olympics, which begin on Friday 5 August.
Additional security provisions
The BEREG KIT security bottles for anti-doping samples have been continuously developed and refined since they were first produced in 1994. The latest version, whose manufacture has been under way in Switzerland since the end of April, has been provided with additional security features to ensure that any tampering with the samples contained therein can be effectively ruled out.
The new security features are part of an evolutionary development process for the BEREG KIT product, and have been devised and incorporated in collaboration with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), national anti-doping organizations and private anti-doping agencies. The BEREG KIT bottles are tamper-evident, i.e. any illegal or improper opening of the samples concerned can be detected with 100% certainty. Berlinger Special AG declines to provide any further details of the security provisions involved.
A certificated product with high security standards
The BEREG KIT anti-doping bottles are manufactured in Switzerland under the strictest security conditions. These include a comprehensive appraisal of each of the bottle's various security features by a materials testing institute that has been certificated for such expertise by the Swiss national authorities. The previous versions of the BEREG KIT anti-doping bottles have also been subjected to such extensive testing - both by the manufacturer and by the relevant external specialists - and have also been declared tamper-evident by the authorities concerned.
McLaren Report on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
It was confirmed at the media conference in Toronto (Canada) on 18 July on the findings of the independent investigation led by Professor Richard McLaren into allegations of the manipulation of anti-doping samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games that BEREG KIT security bottles could continue to be unreservedly used for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games. The latest BEREG KITs which have now been delivered to the Rio organizers are not comparable with those used at the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, and are still regarded as the most secure anti-doping bottles in the world. Berlinger Special AG will also be supporting the anti-doping authorities and the anti-doping laboratory in Brazil if desired, by contributing its expertise and years of experience in the field. The specialists at Berlinger Special AG can determine at any time whether one of the company's anti-doping bottles has been counterfeited or tampered with.
Dedicated to fair and clean sporting competition
Swiss-based Berlinger Special AG has been supporting the endeavours of the world's anti-doping authorities for over ten years now. With its globally unique expertise and its constant further evolutionary development of the security bottles it produces for handling blood and urine samples, Berlinger Special AG is dedicated to helping ensure fair and clean sport. As CEO Andrea Berlinger says: "We support WADA and all the national anti-doping agencies and organizations which, like our company, are committed to fair sporting competition."
Further information:
Berlinger Special AG
Hans Klaus, media spokesman
c/o KLAUS METZLER ECKMANN SPILLMANN
CH-8001 Zurich
Switzerland
Phone +41 43 544 1744
Mobile +41 79 357 0357
Email klaus@kmespartner.com