GOA doping control sessions conclude at Lilliendaal

Dec 09, 2017 Sports

By Zaheer Mohamed
Doping is the occurrence of one or more anti-doping rule violations including use of prohibited substance, presence of a banned substance in an athlete’s sample, failure to file an athlete’s whereabouts, possession or trafficking

Dr. Karen Pilgrim (standing) addresses the participants during Thursday night session.

of a prohibited substance and tampering with the doping control process and so forth.
With the aim of imparting the necessary knowledge of doping control to athletes, The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) held a series of doping control sessions which concluded on Thursday night at its office in Lilliendaal, East Coast Demerara. The GOA assumes the responsibility of the national anti-doping organisation since the state has not established a national anti-doping committee.
The two-week programme which attracted athletes and administrators from various disciplines such as Karate, Swimming, Football, Lawn Tennis, Bodybuilding, Rugby, Athletics, Fullbore Rifle Shooting, Badminton and Baseball, was held under the theme ‘Say No to Doping’. The sessions are being designed to enlighten athletes and administrators about the dangers of doping in sport and due to their commitment to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the GOA are insisting that athletes be properly educated prior to competitions.
Dr. Karen Pilgrim one of the active doping control officers locally told Kaieteur Sport that their most important task is education.
“We want athletes, coaches, parents and managers to understand what doping control involves and I must admit this is a tough year for us in terms of time, so it over the last two weeks we have been running a series of sessions in doping control education,” she said.
Dr. Pilgrim added that Thursday night’s session attracted the largest number of participants. “We have gotten the message across which is to understand where you are, what you need to do and how to protect yourself even from accidentally being involved in doping.”
Dr. Pilgrim stated that no supplement can be considered safe. “In every session we emphasized that no supplement can be considered safe and the reason for that is because supplements are not legally required to list all of their ingredients,” she stated.
“Even though an athlete may take a supplement thinking that they are only getting a protein powder for example they may not know in that powder there are banned substances which are not listed on the label. So our advice is to go to the market and eat healthy, we cannot recommend any supplement because there is no way to know what they contains. At the same time we cannot say don’t take supplements, all we can do is to give advice and hopefully athletes can make the right decisions.”
Among the objectives of the clinic is to promote doping free sport in the Caribbean and to coordinate the fight against doping in sport.
The entire spectrums of general principles of doping in sport, the prohibited list and procedures if you are selected for an anti-doping test were among topics discussed.
The list of prohibited substances and methods applies to athletes both in and out of competition. The updated list normally applies from January 1 each year and is available a few months before on the WADA website. The list is divided into substances that are banned and prohibited during the in-competition period as defined by each sport. Those substances banned at all times would include Hormones, Anabolics, EPO, Beta-2 Agonists, Masking Agents and Diuretics. Those substances prohibited only in-competition would include but not be limited to Stimulants, Marijuana, Narcotics and Glucocorticosteriods, also banned at times are methods such as blood transfusion or injections is some situations.

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