Adamas to test only ‘high risk’ athletes

the budget cuts in sports by the government, the Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia (Adamas) will not conduct blanket testing on national athletes bound for the the Philippines Sea Games this year.

Adamas will instead focus on a group of about 70 athletes, deemed to be high risk, throughout the year.

The athletes, from over 10 sports, are placed under a Registered Testing Pool (RTP) programme which all National AntiDoping Organisations (NADO) are required to conduct by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The athletes are required to often make their whereabouts known to Adamas for the latter to conduct random, out-of-competition testing. Each athlete will be tested a minimum of three times within a year.

Among the sports in the RTP are weightlifting, athletics, sailing, karate, squash, badminton, swimming, boxing, taekwondo, hockey and rugby.

Adamas deputy director Nishel Kumar said the testing has begun this year.

“We have already conducted a risk assessment and we will focus on the athletes or sports we have marked as high potential (for doping),” said Nishel yesterday.

"The random testing will be ongoing throughout the year instead of waiting until just before the Sea Games in October. In fact we have already begun testing the athletes.

“We had conducted this (RTP) to a certain extent in past years but had also done the blanket testing prior to Sea Games at the same time. But doing both required a bigger budget and they also overlapped each other.

“This year we will only be focusing more on RTP, which in my opinion is better as it is more comprehensive.

“We have to test the athletes in the group at least three times a year, if not WADA will deem Adamas as being non-compliant.”

All samples collected will be sent to a WADA accredited lab in Delhi for testing. Each test costs roughly RM1,400.

While testing remains the best deterrent, the ultimate solution, when it comes to doping, is prevention through education.

Nishel said Adamas will continue their nationwide education awareness programmes this year at both the junior and elite level.

“We will be beefing up our education programmes this year and will conduct four-day training camps in Sarawak as well as the Southern and Northern zones this year. We had conducted the camps in the central zone in addition to Sabah and Terengganu last year.”

“This training camp is catered to young athletes from the age of 13 to 16 and focuses on valuebased education.

“For national-level athletes the programmes will be conducted on a sport-by-sport basis.”

National diver Wendy Ng tested positive at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games and was subsequently stripped of her gold medals in the 3m springboard events.

Weightlifter Mohamad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad, who won a bronze at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games last year, failed a pre-competition screening. The result for the test, however, had been received late after he had competed in the event.

Weightlifting, in particular, has been a troubled sport, with no less than eight athletes testing positive over the last two years.