15 Oct 2024

Efforts to prevent doping in sports are intended to protect the health of athletes and to maintain the integrity of sports.

National anti-doping coordinator, Frederick Seno said during an anti-doping workshop for members of the Jwaneng Athletics Club on Saturday, that such efforts also helped create a level playing field and encouraged fair competition.

Seno, from the National Anti-Doping Coordinating Office (NADCO), said not getting involved in doping was athletes’ way of showing respect for themselves and their competitors, and contributed to the protection of clean sport.

Another NADCO official, Doreen Ketshabile informed Jwaneng Athletics Club members that currently there were 11 anti-doping rules in place, and urged the athletes to be aware of them so that they could guard against violating them out of ignorance.

Ketshabile said the rules affected not only athletes but also athletes’ support staff including coaches.

She said in addition to the commonly known one that prohibited the presence of a banned substance in an athlete’s sample, other rules prohibited the use or attempted use of banned substances, trafficking of prohibited substances and administering or attempting to administer them to an athlete.

She cautioned athletes that it was also against anti-doping rules to associate with sanctioned athletes.

Africa Zone 6 Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) manager, Andrew Kamanga advised athletes to be wary of self-medicating, which he said exposed them to the consumption of prohibited substances.

He further urged them to desist from reliance on traditional doctors to address their medical conditions, saying that left them with no paper trail to help investigations should banned substances be found in their samples.

Kamanga added that violating anti-doping rules carried varying penalties which were often aggravated by different factors leading to the imposition of maximum sanctions.

He said dishonesty, for instance, on where the banned substance was sourced, concealing information that the substance was shared with other athletes and trying to influence the actions of a doping control officer were some of the aggravating factors that could get an athlete maximum sanctions.

One of the Jwaneng Athletics Club captains, Katlego Matutu encouraged fellow athletes to stay abreast with anti-doping developments as information on anti-doping changed constantly. Ends