Drug tests produce negative response

Ready to flex their pecs and strike a pose, bodybuilders at the Belgian championships scattered when doping officials showed up.

After a spate of positive doping tests in recent years in Belgium, the event had been moved across the Dutch border to Vlissingen for the weekend competition.

"They must have felt safe out there," doping official Hans Cooman told The Associated Press on Monday.

But Cooman and two colleagues got the necessary papers to check the tournament in the Netherlands. And when they identified themselves just before the event -- with the 20 bodybuilders weighing in and preparing themselves -- the testers drew quite a response.

The bodybuilders got up and left, preferring to quit rather than submit to doping tests. Some grabbed their gear and headed straight out the door.

"They must have been flabbergasted," Cooman said.

Bodybuilders usually take months to prepare for such championships, yet the sight of controllers was too much for them.

"I have never seen anything like it and hope never to see anything like it again," Cooman said.

Bodybuilding has a history of doping, and Cooman said this latest flap "didn't do its reputation any good."

Last year, 22 of 29 tests were positive, either for steroids or for refusing testing, a failure rate of a staggering 75 percent.

• FIGHTING WORDS -- Having put up with hecklers at Notre Dame, President Obama got in a shot of his own at the school, whose renowned football team has gone its longest stretch without a national championship.

After giving the commencement speech at Notre Dame, Obama spoke at an Indianapolis fundraiser Sunday night for the Democratic National Committee. He began his remarks by joking that he told the Rev. John Jenkins, the university president, that the controversy surrounding his campus appearance "paled in comparison to what to do about the football team."

The Fighting Irish had records of 3-9 and 7-6 the past two seasons -- the most losses at the school in a two-year period -- and haven't won a national title since 1988.

"That's an issue we may not resolve within my four years," Obama said.

"Eight," shouted someone from the audience.

"All right, well, maybe in eight we might get it done," Obama said.

• BUFFALO HUNT -- A day after picking up the key to the city, Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens went looking for a home in Buffalo, N.Y.

With a camera crew from his reality TV show in tow, Owens checked out two condominiums at a new complex overlooking the city's inner harbor. Owens, who has homes in Miami, Atlanta, Dallas and New Jersey, liked the second condo but said he's not sure his search is over.

"That's a nice place," he said Tuesday. "But who knows, I might end up in a hotel for the rest of the year."

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL WIRE SERVICES