PSC national sports summit tackles anti-doping policies

THE National Sports Summit 2021 of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) resumes on Thursday with the topic of antidoping policies spotlighted.

Dr. Alejandro Pineda, Jr., head of the Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization (PHINADO), will lead the discussion, which kicks off the second phase of the online summit which began late in January.

He will provide an in-depth discussion on the implementation of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code in the country.

Dr. Pineda has been very active in guiding national athletes and coaches in complying with world anti-doping policies and has been representing the country in the Southeast Asia Regional Anti-doping Organization since 2006.

“The area of honest and fair play is very vital to impart, most especially to our athletes, coaches, and sports educators who are directly involved in the practice of training minds and bodies to be at its prime,” said PSC National Training Director Marc Velasco, also the summit’s Project Director, of the to-bediscussed topic.

The subject on anti-doping will be the first of three topics to be touched on in the second phase of the conference.

It will be followed by “Sports Science and Sports Success” and “High-Performance Sports and Athletic Success” in the coming weeks.

Originally set to take place last year until the coronavirus pandemic forced it to be deferred and reconfigured, the summit has taken the form of a series of weekly conference-type online sessions hosted by the PSC via Zoom, running until May this year.

The summit is aimed at taking insights of different sports stakeholders and using those as foundations in crafting a sustainable and workable short to long-term plan for Philippine sports. The PSC said all data gathered from the web series will be processed and studied to create a new set of resolutions to be presented to sports leaders for action. —