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Sports officials updated on intricacies of banned substances at WADO workshop
The widespread use of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs has tainted the sports landscape worldwide and officials are valiantly advocating the minimization, or better yet, the total eradication of such practices. Towards this end, these officials remain adamant that education is the sole means by which the stakeholders can become aware of these practices thus fostering new approaches to the elimination of the scourge.
Minister of Sports, Dr. Frank Anthony (right) and President of the GOA points to the message, displayed at the workshop Saturday morning.
It was with this focus that the Caribbean arm of the World Anti-Doping Organization (CRADO), the Regional Anti-Doping Organization (RADO), organized a workshop for affiliates of local sports Associations/Federations at the National Resource Centre, Woolford Avenue Saturday morning.
Conducted under the theme, ‘Understanding Anti-Doping and the Requirements to Keep Athletes Clean,’ the forum attracted more than 50 representatives from the local administrative sports landscape along with top government officials including Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Dr Frank Anthony, Permanent Secretary within that Ministry and CRADO Board Member, Alfred King, President of the Guyana Olympic Association, K A Juman Yassin and other popular personalities within the sports sector.
Minister Anthony delivered the feature address and lauded the organizers for what he described as a comprehensive programme. He also expressed his regards, on behalf of the government, to officials of the RADO while reflecting on the fact that doping is as old as organized sports. He said that officials operated devoid of the methodology for testing until 1928 when the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) took an assertive stance and banned the use of illicit drugs in sports.
Minister Anthony said that 30 years onward, following the world famed event, Tour de France, when officials were pressured to intensify efforts to curtail the scourge. France was then credited with being the first nation to implement anti-doping legislation. “In 1999, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced the first anti-doping legislation and world sports administrators now operate on a common platform,” informed the Sports Minister. He reiterated the ill effects of drugs on athletes and said that he was impressed with the work of WADA over the years.
Minister Anthony also noted that on many occasions the athlete is unaware that he/she is using banned substance; he said that officials are concerned that influential individuals associated to the athlete might be instrumental in the administration of the banned substances. He said that officials have since widened the net to sanction those persons in their bid (WADA officials) to truly contain the scourge. He subsequently warned the athletes and officials responsible for their sports training, to familiarize themselves with the wide list of banned substances in order to familiarize themselves. “The smarter athletes become in attempting to avoid detection, so too are international organizations engaging in research to detect these (illicit) drugs before instituting sanctions,” said Mr. Anthony. He said that the onus is on the athlete to educate him/herself on the issues pertaining to the subject as there is much to be learnt.
Earlier, Mr. Alfred, who delivered opening remarks, noted that doping is now a public issue and need to be addressed. His remarks were preceded by those of Ms Tessa Chaderton Shaw, Executive Director of Caribbean RADO, who spoke on the role of the RADO and the 2015 World Anti Doping Code, therapeutic Use Exemption and results management. Later in the day, several facilitators spoke on varying topics including Sasha Sutherland; Executive Assistant (CRADO), on the doping control process, Karen Pilgrim and Charles Corbin, Doping Control Officers of CRADO, discussed the doping control process while Dr Navindranauth Rambaran, another doping control officer of CRADO, spoke of the 2014 prohibited list of drugs.
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