Daily Times

LAHORE: The Punjab Olympic Association (PbOA) on Saturday organised a seminar on doping to create awareness about the consequences of doping and use of performance-enhancing drugs which could cause death too, as was the case of four bodybuilders in Punjab last month. The central theme of the seminar was that coordination among the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and national sports federations with all other stakeholders should be improved to create awareness among players, coaches and trainers about dire consequences of banned substances. POA president Lt-Gen (r) Syed Arif Hasan, POA secretary general Muhammad Khalid Mahmood, anti-doping organisation in Pakistan chairman Dr Waqar Ahmad, sports medicine and anti-doping expert Dr Asad Abbas and professor Mian Muhammad Rafiq delivered their lectures on the topic.

The POA president warned that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in collaboration with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had made rules much more strict now, adding that not only tests would be conducted on outstanding athletes but the doping net would also be extended to those who won gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2102 London Olympics. “The POA will organise more such seminars in Peshawar, Karachi and Quetta to create awareness among players and coaches,” announced Arif Hasan while hailing the PbOA’s decision to take an initiative in this regard by conducting the seminar.

To a question, the POA president said though it was mandatory that doping test should be conducted on random basis at least during all the national-level championships, there was a need to ensure its full implementation.

Speaking on the occasion, Khalid said retest of samples from the Beijing Games 2008 had started in August 2015, and the IOC had announced the results of 454 selected doping samples this year. “Up to 32 athletes could be banned from competing at the Rio Olympics. There is a need for a close coordination between all stakeholders to curb the menace of use of illegal drugs by athletes,” Khalid added. He also lamented that many national sports federations did not send their representative to attend this seminar. “They indeed missed out on a great opportunity to get useful knowledge,” he commented while stating that “anti-doping subject needs action on war footing to make youngsters aware about illegal and unethical ways of enhancing their powers.” He said the POA, the PSB and other stakeholders had to work with clear intentions, if they wanted to end the doping trend among youngsters.

Dr Waqar said the use of banned medicines by players was in fact ‘cheating’ which was against the sportsmanship spirit, which also means fair play. “Doping is, in fact, killing the real spirit of sports, which actually helps in building a healthy nation. But such illegal activities have ruined the prospects of a healthy nation as such activities are bound to cause deadly disease among youngsters,” he maintained. He quoted example of Pakistan cricketer Yasir Shah who was tested positive but was lucky to serve a minor three-month ban because he had taken the stance that he had mistakenly used his wife’s medicine. “But we must keep this in mind that the WADA has ended this relaxation of giving little punishment to those athletes found guilty of using the medicine of their relatives as the WADA has decided to adopt a zero-tolerance policy in this regard.” Dr Waqar said so far he had taken urine samples of around 150 athletes in Pakistan among whom 21 tested positive.

Dr Asad also spoke on the issue in medical jargons, stating that there were scores of disadvantages of taking illegal substance but there hardly was any single benefit of such medicines. When asked if the government had enough resources to meet the cost of doping tests, Dr Asad said all national sports federations should demand the PSB to allocate some funds for doping tests in their annual grant. The cost of a doping test was around $200 to $250. To yet another question, he said it was not easy to set up any doping laboratory in Pakistan, adding it was the easiest way for Pakistan to get the report of a test for around $200. PbOA secretary general Khawaja Idrees while thanking all the participants for attending the event said the death of four bodybuilders should be a wake-up call for the sports fraternity since more youngsters were on the same path.