Howman praises India’s efforts

The World Anti Doping Agency today praised the ‘giant steps’ taken by India in the last few months...

The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) today praised the ‘giant steps’ taken by India in the last few months in its anti-doping campaign through the formation of the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) and expressed confidence that the dope control laboratory here was well on its way to get accreditation from the body.

WADA director general David Howman said UK Sports will help NADA, registered in November 2005, with the know-how to go about in the coming years. UK Sport is responsible for the implementation and management of the United Kingdom’s anti-doping policy.

Howman and a team of three other WADA officials are here for a two-day symposium on anti-doping in sports organised by the Ministry of Sports and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in collaboration with WADA.

In a specially convened symposium for the media today, Howman and Elizabeth Hunter, Director, WADA (Communications), provided an overview of WADA’s roles and responsibilities as a monitoring agency and explained in detail the rules regarding ‘athletes’ whereabouts’ and therapeutic use exemption (TUE) process and the proposed ‘Athlete’s passport’, a programme to track athlete’s body-metabolism, which is expected to be introduced after the revised WADA code comes into action following the third international conference on Anti-Doping in Madrid next month.

Howman would not go into the details of the ‘positives’ coming out of the country, but disclosed that WADA was fully aware of the positive results being reported by the Delhi lab. “We are aware of ground realities in India and it is not a unique situation. It is as bad as anywhere else but we are making efforts with the stake holders of sports in the country. WADA is ready to extend all co-operation. It depends how earnest India is in its fight against doping. It requires some patience and going by the way Indian Olympic Association and the Sports Authority of India are making progress, they are well on track,” said Howman.

Citing example of China, WADA communications director Elizabeth Hunter said: “They have made rapid strides in last one year, apart from establishing an independent national anti-doping organisation and building a new state-of-the-art laboratory, there is an increasing human and financial resources dedicated to the national testing program, they are incorporating strong education programs that target athletes of different ages, as well as coaches and officials, in their long-term strategy for prevention. It is a good model for India to approach since both the countries have big sporting projects lined up in the next few years.”