The seizure of banned human growth hormones from a Chinese athlete in Australia will make it difficult for Beijing to refute long-held suspicions that China's swimming athletes have won their way into the record books through the habitual use of drugs. In the last seven years, Chinese athletes have been found to be on steroids 23 times.

Just last month, Chinese sports authorities said they were determined to win the battle against drugs and that they had conducted 576 tests on swimmers in the first 10 months of last year, but none had been found to be positive. They said 293 tests had been carried out in 1996, all of which were also negative.

Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said in a report from Perth that the Chinese coach wanted to deliver the growth hormone to someone in Australia.

"A dozen vials of liquid which customs officers at Sydney Airport found in the baggage of breaststroke specialist Yuan Yuan belonged to coach Zhou Zhewen," an official said. "Zhou wanted to bring these vials to a friend."

The Chinese Olympic Committee official said an investigation was under way and the case would be handled under international regulations.

Chinese officials in Beijing said yesterday that the coach would be barred from the competition along with the athlete concerned. The swimmer "did not know" what the vials contained, but she, too, would be pulled out of the competition being held in Perth, the official said.

"Someone asked her to bring something to a Chinese person over there, and customs discovered it was contraband. The coach must also take responsibility, but we have not yet decided what to do. This kind of thing violates discipline.

"Our view here is, `what are you doing over there'? Contraband drugs are not good, and we feel we should deal with it in serious disciplinary terms," the official said.

The People's Daily newspaper report, yesterday headlined "China scores on springboard and platform", made no mention of the incident which has the makings of China's biggest-ever sporting scandal.

The English language China Daily quoted former Chinese diving star Li Kongzheng as saying: "There is no country able to match China in depth of talent. China is certain to dominate the diving events at the Perth world championships."

The article was accompanied by a picture of Chinese divers Sun Shuwei and Tian Liang winning gold in the men's synchronised platform diving final.