… athletes to undergo random doping tests

WITH the current wave of allegations of doping against athletes, the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) will be “beefing up” its anti-doping measures this year to ensure that guilty athletes are identified locally, and not after they have attended an international event.Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday, AAG president Aubrey Hutson said that the Association will be partnering with the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) to carry out random doping tests on athletes throughout the year.
“We (the Association) prefer if this is dealt with locally because you know the kind of sanction that will come down on the association, so we are beefing up our measures.” Hutson said.
According to Hutson, the current initiative will see all of the clubs furnished with “whereabouts” forms which is expected to be distributed and filled out by each athlete in the club.
The form requires the responding athlete to name a place and time where he/she will be located on any given day of the week.
The athletes will be required to fill out a form every month. From the information on the form a GOA anti-doping team can show up at any given time on the day, named by the athlete, and request that the athlete undergo a doping test.
The appointed time when the athlete is tested is controlled by the GOA, Hutson said, and the AAG will not necessarily be told when the athlete will be tested.
According to Hutson any athlete failing to be present for three consecutive random doping tests will be in contravention of policy and likely to face sanctions for his/her absence. Hutson says it is therefore in the athletes’ benefit that they be present at the time and location that they give. According to Hutson this measure was not in place last year.
Hutson said that is not the only aspect of the initiative as the Association will also be putting a serious effort into making athletes more aware of those drugs that are against the policies of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), the international governing body of athletics.
“First and foremost our approach is education first,” Hutson noted
Should any athlete fail their doping test, Hutson said that appropriate sanctions will be meted out to the athlete in keeping with regulations that the Association has to follow
“We have a disciplinary committee and we are guided by the IAAF codes of ethics. If they are guilty they will be dealt with according to that,” Hutson explained.
Doping in athletics has come into the limelight over the past year after several top athletes were found to have tested positive for banned drugs.
World record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic gold medallist Sherone Simpson both of whom are Jamaican runners are accused of having taken the banned stimulant Oxilofrine. Powell is currently before a three-person Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission panel.
Earlier this month Guyanese were awakened to the realisation that doping accusations were not so far from home after local powerlifter Gumendra Shewdas was accused of doping after he is said to have failed an in-competition doping control test conducted last year August during the 2013 Sub Junior Powerlifting Championships held in Killeen, Texas, USA, which Shewdas attended, and won a gold medal in the 53kg Sub-Junior category.
According to the accusations of the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) a urine sample given by Shewdas indicated the presence of Methylhexaneamine and Oxilofrine, both of which are prohibited stimulants.
Shewdas later said that he was taking some tablets given to him by his grandfather. Shewdas was given a two-year ban which began last year October and the local Federation, the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation, was sanctioned to pay a Euro $2 000 fine.