WADA winning anti-drug war

It’s a tough battle but it’s a battle being won.

“We are getting ahead. We’re still in the race and we’re getting to the finish line,” yesterday declared the deputy director for doping control of the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA.

“But when we’ll get there, we don’t know,” said Rob Koehler, who’s in the country for the three-day Southeast Asian Regional Anti-Doping Organization Conference (SEA RADO) at the Heritage Hotel.

During a press conference, Koehler cited the gains WADA achieved in its eight years of existence, and how the battle against doping in sports has taken on a worldwide perspective.

“If you look at what we’ve accomplished we’ve come a long way. We’ve seen great changes. WADA spends $6 million a year on research. The testing is improving. The analysis is improving,” he said.

Prof. Varin Thansuphasiri of Thailand, SEA RADO chairman, said WADA is “doing its best” in the battle against doping in sports, adding that it should focus on “education, services and research.”

“It’s really very, very difficult it’s a big task for WADA because there’s always a new (illegal) substance coming out,” said the Thai official who talked about fairness in the sporting arena.

“It’s not only about those that enhance the performance of athletes but (drugs for) weight loss. It’s not an enhancer but it’s taking advantage of another because you lose weight faster.”

The Philippines will soon form its own organization, to be named Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization, and with functions totally independent from the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine.

Also gracing the press conference were PCSM director Dr. Raul Canlas, an expert in sports medicine, and Dr. Alex Pineda, head of the center’s anti-doping unit.

“We are also doing our best,” said Pineda, aware that in the last two stagings of the SEA Games, two Filipino athletes have been found guilty of using banned substances.

Taekwondo’s Esther Marie Singson and heptathlon’s Narcisa Atienza were both stripped of their medals, a gold and a bronze, because of this.

“Some say, ‘Why not test all Filipino athletes before they compete overseas?’ Well, this entails a lot of money so we can start by educating them,” said Pineda.

The official list of the banned substances is reviewed yearly, in November, and all WADA members are informed by January.

The emergence of more and more anti-doping organizations among WADA’s 205 member countries is also a good sign that the effort to eradicate doping in sports is facing the green light.