The latest dope on the Commonwealth Games is,well,on dope itself. Faced with a shortage of trained staff,the Doping Control Division of the Games Organising Committee has started training volunteer students. The team began a three-day training session for 50 students of the Manav Rachna International University (MNIU),Faridabad,last week. This is the second batch from the university to be trained the first was trained in January. The MNIU was one of the 44 deemed Universities whose status was sought to be removed by the HRD Ministry recently. Munish Chander Batish,Deputy Director General of the Doping Control Division,said: We require about 447 volunteers and plan to induct 250 students from Manav Rachna. The rest will come from the various medical colleges in Delhi. From Monday, the team will start sessions exclusively for MBBS students,who will be trained to perform tasks like collecting blood samples. Pre-testing will begin on September 23,and tests would take place till the Games close on October 14. Students will go through three levels of training: once found competent for a particular task,they will be given role-specific training. If they clear a written exam after that,they will be given venue-specific training,with the possibility of working of the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). We will be conducting nearly 1,500 different tests during the Games, said Batish. The team had asked for students with science background. Later,they were screened for communication skills,personality and commitment the last is important,since punctuality is an important factor, said G L Khanna,Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at MRIU,who is also on the Centres Steering Committee. The students will be performing the duties of chaperone coordinator and chaperone. If there are extraordinary students,we will consider appointing them as venue coordinators, said Batish. Explaining the procedure,Batish said the venue manager releases the details of the test to the chaperone coordinator two hours before the event. The latter informs the chaperone an hour later. The chaperone will be at the sidelines of the event to identify the athlete. After its conclusion,she will approach the athlete, said Shaji John,Assistant Professor of Physiotherapy at MNIU,who was trained by the Dope Control Team in January. He had volunteered as Dope Control Officer in the Commonwealth Shooting Championships and the Hockey World Cup. The athlete will have 60 minutes to report to the test centre, said John. The chaperone will accompany her wherever she goes even for a change of clothes. Hence athletes are provided chaperones of the same sex. Since urine samples are taken in all cases,athletes are not allowed to visit washrooms. They are also prohibited from taking showers. They will be free to have food and drink,but at their own risk, said Devesh Sharma,final year student of Masters in Physiotherapy. Sharma was trained with the first batch and was part of the anti-doping team of the Hockey World Cup. With the Commonwealth Games,the National Dope Testing Laboratory will also join the ranks of about ten other laboratories around the world with blood and Erythropoietin Sample testing capabilities. About 150 blood samples will be taken during the CWG,and the NDTL will release the results within 48 hours of collection.
