Athletics: Athletes turn to air restorer

New Zealand athletes look set to embrace simulated altitude training methods following the World Anti-Doping Authority's [Wada] decision not to outlaw them - at least not in the immediate future.

Sports funding agency Sparc has also recognised the potential benefits of what is known as hypoxic training and has set aside about $30,000 for research and development.

The Academy of Sport has employed multi-sporter John Hellemans as an adviser on altitude training, natural and simulated.

Although Wada has decided not to regulate simulated training, it is clear there are misgivings on the part of some in the organisation as to the ethics of "artificially enhancing" red blood cell counts in the human body.

Hellemans and Academy of Sport North CEO Pete Pfitzinger are authors of a report into best practice surrounding altitude training, including simulated training.

Pfitzinger admitted the ethical debate had caught him on the hop.

News that Wada considered banning the simulated environments was the first time he was aware there was an "ethical debate".

Graham Steele of Drug Free Sport New Zealand said there was no universal view among Wada stakeholders that altitude simulated environments were "problematic, from an ethical point of view".

Such environments had been compared in the past to blood-doping, in that there are no synthetic substances involved, but Steele insists that there is a clear distinction.

"It primarily surrounds the health of the athlete. There is clear evidence that blood transfusions have medical implications whereas there is no evidence as such with this [altitude simulated environments]."

Hellemans, a sports medicine practitioner who coaches, among others, triathletes Andrea Hewitt and Kris Gemmell, said he had to "have a think about it" when they were first introduced to New Zealand.

"You can argue that it's an artificial method of enhancing an athlete's performance," he said. "But it is safe... it's basically just a training device."

As well as running one altitude camp a year for his athletes, Hellemans also accesses the hypoxic devices "fairly regularly", the relatively low cost making it a sensible option.

He said while it best suited endurance athletes who spent time in oxygen debt, it was also beneficial to athletes like rugby players.

"It'll help their recovery during a game and also help them, for example, prepare for games to be played in South Africa at altitude."

He believes the All Blacks are thinking about building hypoxic training into their future programmes.

One rugby player, Hurricanes winger Lome Fa'atau, is a convert.

"The work rate required to cover a large area, both offensively and defensively, is reduced by the boost in performance that io [a hypoxic centre company] gives me. "With the improvement in recovery, I am able to attack the next play on the field with the initial intensity that I started the 80 minutes with," he said.

The training method has caught on fast in New Zealand where the tyranny of distance means it is hard to access high-altitude conditions - such as they have in Boulder, Colorado, and Font-Romeu in the French Alps - considered so beneficial for athletes.

A snow farm in the Crown Ranges, near the Cardrona skifield, is being developed to provide this sort of training but will not be readily accessible to all.

The Queenstown-based company, io, opened its fourth simulated hypoxic centre in Wellington last week.

Chief executive of io, Michael Lodge, believes it would be beneficial if Sparc set aside money so carded athletes could access hypoxic training.

"New Zealand sportsmen and women don't always get access to the big dollars that allows them to spend significant time overseas training at altitude," he said.

Artificially induced hypoxic conditions are effectively either altitude tents, reduced-oxygen apartments or masks that simulate conditions one would experience at high ground. Many athletes have discovered improved performance from living in oxygen-reduced air while training at sea level, as a result of increasing their red blood cell count.

Wada, headed by New Zealander David Howman, was seriously considering banning the use of hypoxic training but this month decided against such a move, its decision influenced by the difficulty it would have in policing a ban.

"It was just illogical," Lodge said.

"Aeroplanes would have to be banned because they are hypoxic environments. The difficulty is if you had an athlete that went to altitude to train for three months and an athlete that worked in a simulated environment, they're both going to show the same results. How do you differentiate between them?"

Wada president Dick Pound recently outlined the agency's scope of review into hypoxic training.

"Wada performed a scientific and ethical review of the matter, and engaged in a thorough consultation with experts and stakeholders," he said.

"While we do not deem this method appropriate for inclusion on the [prohibited] list at this time, we still wish to express the concern that, in addition to the results varying individually from case to case, use of this method may pose health risks if not properly implemented and under medical supervision."

Lodge did not believe there were any health risks associated with the training.

"You're not getting chronic exposure. It's like interval training. It's five minutes on, five minutes off, and it's only an hour per day, for 15 days."