Wada defends new rules on drug testing

DRUGS IN SPORT:  ANTI-DOPING chiefs yesterday defended their new rules on out-of-competition testing as they stepped up the battle against drugs in sport. The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has joined forces with Interpol to bolster evidence gathering on doping and trafficking of performance-enhancing drugs.

WADA is also keeping a keen eye on a legal challenge to new athletes “whereabouts” codes which allows drug-testers to track top athletes for tests.

The case being brought in Belgium on behalf of 65 athletes – cyclists, footballers and volleyball players – declares the rule breaks European privacy laws.

A WADA spokesman said: “Because out-of-competition tests can be conducted without notice to athletes, they are one of the most powerful means of deterrence and detection of doping and are an important step in strengthening athlete and public confidence in doping-free sport.

“As the ambassadors of their sport, top elite athletes know that accurate whereabouts information is crucial to ensure efficiency of the anti-doping programs which are designed to protect the integrity of their sport and to protect clean athletes.”

Sport stars have to provide whereabouts information covering an hour a day, seven days a week of where they are going to be as well as their training location, home address and match schedule – which is same the information demanded of Olympics athletes since 2004.

A “limited” number of top athletes would face the tests under the hardline code rule which has been in place since January 1st 2009.

It is aimed at being a “flexible tool to show their commitment to doping-free sport, as well as appropriate, sufficient and effective privacy protection”, according to WADA.

The 65 athletes fighting the case in Belgium disagree. The case is aimed at the Flemish regional government, which is responsible for anti-doping in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

Any athlete on the national testing register – largely any elite athlete in an Olympic or major team sport – must make themselves available to testers for one hour a day, between 6am and 11pm, three months in advance.

This is done online and can be updated by email or text message.

Failure to be where you said you would be, if the testers come calling, counts as a strike.

Three strikes in an 18-month period and you are out with an automatic ban from competition, as Olympic 400 metres champion Christine Ohuruogu discovered. She did not fail a test but was banned from racing for a year for missing three drugs tests before returning to win World and Olympic gold.

In a separate move Interpol and WADA signed an agreement in Lyon, France, this week to try to strengthen the legal framework covering Interpol’s 187 international bureaux to clamp down on trafficking.