Organizers aim to make it a ‘Clean Games’

Dinesh Weerawansa Reporting from China

The organizers of the 16th Asian Games in the southern Chinese city - GAGOC, is taking extra precautions to keep performance enhancing drugs away and make it a ‘Clean Games’, ensuring fair competition for all sportsmen and women here from 45 countries.

Following the detection of several positive dope cases at last month’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, including Sri Lanka boxer Manju Wanniarachchi who won 56kg event’s gold medal, the Asian Games’ organizers have taken every possible step to educate competitors on the negative effects of steroids as well as to catch the drug cheats.

A total of over 1,500 urine tests will be conducted during the Games period - - from November 5 to 27. In addition, there will also be random blood tests. In order to support those, a total of 58 doping control stations have been set up at competition venues and Athletes Village , including 54 in Guangzhou and one each in co-host cities Foshan, Dongguan and Shanwei.

Chef-de-Mission of the Sri Lanka contingent for the Asian Games, Prema Pinnawale said strict dope control regulations would ensure fair play and equal opportunity all competitors, in keeping with the principles of the Olympic movement.

“The organizers have done a praiseworthy job in implementing strict dope control regulations,” he said. Pinnawale, who is also the Secretary of the Athletic Association of Sri Lanka said: “Taking performance enhancing drugs to win medals is a kind of cheating. We have to educate athletes, coaches and public.

The AASL has spent nearly Rs. 400,000 under the initiative of its President Major General Palitha Fernando on anti-doping educative program”.

Most anti-doping campaigns here had begun some years ago, from the time Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games about a decade ago. There have been many programs to educate athletes as well as the public on the damage caused by steroids.

China’s anti doping officials and sports medicine doctors have been working hard to implement these awareness and educational programs, which have shown positive results.

Three decades ago, it was the Americans who stole the limelight, especially as sprint merchants in the Olympic arena. Towards the late eighties and early nineties, China entered the big league with a bang, especially in athletics.

They produced an invincible force in track and field. Especially the Chinese athletes trained under their famous coach Ma Junren became famous overnight with superlative performance. They were better known as ‘Ma’s Army’ in the athletic circles.

Unfortunately, there were a series of positive dope cases detected subsequently and the Chinese authorities took prompt action to clear their name and to educate athletes from junior level.

That has paid rich dividends and China has been able to reduce the threat of steroids to a greater extent. It was clearly visible at the last Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 at which China underlined its sporting supremacy with a clean record. There is no exception at the Asian Games and the Chinese are not only aiming at making a clean sweep in medals standings but also to achieve it in just and fair manner. That is precisely why they have taken so much of trouble in implementing their anti-doping operations.

All drug stores and pharmacies prominently display anti-doping educational material. “Athletes should not take medicine that contains dope” a popular poster at most pharmacies said. All pharmacies prominently display a notice board which says “Sales of anabolic agents and peptide hormones except for insulin are prohibited in drugstores”.

In keeping with its obligations to the Olympic Movement, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), in cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) developed and instituted its Anti-Doping Rules in compliance with the WADA Code.

These rules were introduced for the first time at the Asian Indoor Games in 2005 held in Bangkok, Thailand.

In parallels with this the OCA with the assistance of Olympic Solidarity embarked on its educational program to introduce these Anti-Doping Rules to all National Olympic Committees (NOCs) during their own forums and activities. This approach was extended to the WADA inspired RADOs (Regional Anti-Doping Organizations) in Asia. These initiatives had an effective impact in increasing the awareness of these organizations about anti-doping rules and hence to promote them in ensuring dope free teams in international competitions.

Complementing these efforts was the launching by OCA and WADA (both from headquarters and the Regional Office in Tokyo), in cooperation with NOCs and Olympic Solidarity of the Anti-Doping Educational program for the Asian Continent since 2005 onwards.

OCA Vice President Timothy Fok believes a new publication sanctioned by Hong Kongs National Olympic Committee (NOC) will make a big contribution to the fight against drugs in sport.

Under the auspices of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, its Anti-Doping Committee is publishing a quarterly newsletter called “True Self” to spread the anti-doping message in the sports community.

“To effectively prevent athletes from taking sports drugs we must rely on the support of the entire sports community to develop a drug-free sports culture,” he said.

“At the same time it is also important to enhance the anti-doping knowledge of athletes, coaches, sports administrators and support personnel so that the chance of inadvertent doping will be minimized. I am confident that the fight against doping will be considerably strengthened and that the spirit of drug-free sport will be fostered through this newsletter,” the Hong Kong Olympic chief said.

The China Anti-Doping Agency (CADA) has been actively involved in tasks such as making policies on doping control, training specialized volunteers on GAGOCs doping control procedure and collecting and analyzing samples. CADAs has vast experience in facilitating the doping control programs of major multi-sport events in the past two decades, including the Olympic Games and Asian Games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), considering WADA’s contribution to the anti-doping efforts for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, has presented a special award for China’s anti-doping body.

GUANGZHOU, Monday.