Compared to blood or urine, hair is the biological matrix that can provide the longest detection window—months instead of days. | Photo: iStock

In the race for the ultimate drug test, Chinese researchers just got a few lengths ahead. In fact, you might even say they got a hundred lengths ahead.

That’s because they’ve validated a new hair test that can detect a broad range of “well over 100 prohibited substances in a single analytical run,” their recently published study states. And the clincher is this: It can detect doping weeks and even months after it occurred.

“Doping control analysis of a blood or urine sample gives only a snapshot of prohibited substances that may be present in the body at the moment of sample collection,” said Jenny K.Y. Wong, PhD, a racing chemist at The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Racing Laboratory at Sha Tin Racecourse, in China