A comprehensive and far-reaching anti-doping programme has been carried out in the countdown to the World Championships. The key point is that the core part of the testing programme really started more than six months ago.

The IAAF out-of-competition testing programme for the last six months, and more, has been targeted at those athletes likely to be competing in Beijing.

The most important time to be testing many athletes is during the off season when heavy training loads are taking place, and this approach is no secret; but it is often easier for sports to simply pile on the tests during an event itself and claim a successful anti-doping programme.

The reality in athletics is far from that scenario. The testing in Beijing will be important but nowhere near as important as a truly no-notice out-of-competition (OOC) programme conducted during the preceding six months, or longer.

The OOC testing has been intelligence led and specifically targeted based on known risk factors for doping. The IAAF also liaises closely with the various national anti-doping agencies to ensure that its own OOC testing is maximised, concentrating on filling the gaps where no effective national testing programmes exist.

Other times that are just as important to test include, for example, the lead-up to qualification events, or when we know that athletes will be chasing qualification marks.

The IAAF is also heavily utilising specialist analysis such as the IRMS (isotope-ratio mass spectrometry) test for EPO, human growth hormone (HGH), and other substances.

It is more expensive, and at times, harder to coordinate, but it is crucial that as often as possible, the tests are analysed for all possible banned substances (based on the risk factors for the relevant discipline).

The new anti-doping strategy does not differ from the IAAF World Championships, Moscow 2013, greatly, but there are a few small and important differences. The IAAF continues to build its biological passport database. For the blood passport, this means we have more profiles to guide target testing, which helps determine where and when testing occurs.

There are essentially two different forms of blood testing used as part of the IAAF programme. Blood samples taken for the purpose of being used in the biological passport and blood samples taken for the purpose of detecting prohibited substances.

There are some small differences in the way the samples are collected, with the biggest being that for blood passport samples, athletes are required to have rested at least two hours before sample collection.

The main difference in blood and urine testing is that the samples are used to look for different substances.