Many athletes unaware of banned drugs
JAKARTA (JP): Illegal drug-taking can cost athletes their careers, but few know much about banned drugs.
The chairwoman of the 19th Southeast Asian Games doping committee, Dangsina Moeloek, told The Jakarta Post that many athletes did not know what doping was all about.
"We experienced this during the National Games last year when six athletes were convicted of using banned substances but all of them said they did not take the substances on purpose," she said recently.
A men's tennis player, two markswomen and one marksman, a men's judoka and a female hockey player failed dope tests during last year's National Games.
But, despite the National Sports Council stripping them of their medals and records, they all received minimum sentences from their respective sports organizations on the grounds that they were not aware the drugs were banned.
They were lucky to escape life bans, such as that imposed on Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson after the International Amateur Athletics Federation found an excessive level of testosterone in his urine sample in 1993.
Johnson had earlier been suspended for two years for using the steroid stanozolol on course to an Olympic gold medal and a world record in Seoul nine years ago.
One of the country's doping experts, Dangsina, pledged a drug- free SEA Games, thanks to a consistent campaign against illegal drug use.
"I'm confident that this will be a clean Games, or at least there will be no Indonesian athletes who fail dope tests," Dangsina said.
She said the doping control committee had worked hard in the run-up to the Games, through counseling and periodic urine tests.
"Officials in charge of the national training program for the SEA Games have allowed us to conduct out-of-competition random tests on 110 athletes. This preventive method has made each athlete aware of banned drugs," Dangsina said.
The Dangsina-led doping control team will conduct more than 500 random urine samples every day during the eight main days of competition, making it one of the busiest committees in the SEA Games.
Backed up by 123 officials who include 50 doctors, the committee will also conduct gender verification tests. They will be in groups of three spread over the 34 venues and the rest will be posted in the doping control center in Senayan.
Despite the heavy workload, the doping committee received relatively little money compared to other commissions. The consortium has earmarked Rp 177 million (US$47,850) out of the Games' total budget of Rp 105 billion ($30 million) for Dangsina and her team.
Quick job
Dangsina said her committee would work 24 hours a day to complete testing procedures and let each participating team concerned know the results as soon as possible.
In the past SEA Games, it took the doping committee between one and two weeks to reveal its results, usually after the Games had concluded.
All analyses will be conducted in a city-owned laboratory in Rawasari, East Jakarta. The laboratory has received temporary accreditation from the Sydney doping laboratory from Oct. 6 to Oct. 25.
Each sample will cost $125 to analyze.
"For the first time ever, a SEA Games host country is authorized to conduct doping analysis," Dangsina said.
Shortly after its dedication last year, the laboratory was used to examine urine samples of athletes participating in the National Games.
Indonesia used to send its samples to Sydney or Beijing for laboratory analysis.
During the Games, representatives from the Sydney laboratory will be in Jakarta to observe the analysis and to report on the procedures.
Based on the test results, the Games executive committee will question those athletes who test positive and then decide on suitable penalties. (yan)