Nicki Vance is an Australian who has nearly 20 years of experience in the field, including a year’s stint at the World Anti-Doping Agency.

IBAF president Harvey Schiller said the federation needed a full-time anti-doping specilalist heading into the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“Our goal is to establish a leadership position in education and testing to eliminate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport,” he said in a statement.

The hiring follows last week’s release of the Mitchell Report in the United States on the use of performance-enhancing substances in major league baseball.

“Like a lot of sports that are on the Olympic program the professional leagues don’t come under the control of the federation,” Schiller said. “I believe we will be able to set a standard for all sports that have professional organizations associated with them.”

The IBAF conducted 24 drug tests on the four teams at the Asian Championships and Olympic qualifier in Taiwan earlier this month. All came back negative.

The doping problem in professional baseball — and lack of rigorous testing and sanctions — was a factor in the sport’s exclusion from the Olympics. Baseball was voted off the Olympic program by the IOC in 2005. It will be part of the Beijing Games but not the 2012 London Olympics. Baseball and softball are lobbying to be reinstated for the 2016 Olympics.

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