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The Gold Coast 2018 High Integrity Anti-Doping Partnership got underway for Commonwealth athletes today as the Athletes Village for the XXI Commonwealth Games officially opened. The Partnership will prioritise the rights of clean athletes and ensure a fairness-first, values-centred culture at the Games, which runs from 4 – 15 April on the Gold Coast, Australia.
The Partnership brings together the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the Gold Coast 2018 Organising Committee (GOLDOC) and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA); and aims to set the standard for international major multi-sports event anti-doping programmes through its innovative tri-partite partnership model.
Commonwealth Games Federation President, Louise Martin CBE said: “Athletes and sports fans rightly expect Commonwealth Sport to be a beacon for fairness and integrity on the field of play – indeed these ideals are the very fabric of what our Commonwealth of Nations represents. That is why the CGF and its Medical Commission will leave no stone unturned in its dogged pursuit of fair play in the lead-up to, during and post-Gold Coast 2018.
“Athlete and public confidence in clean sport has been shattered in recent times and so, we, the Commonwealth Sports Movement, must lead by example and reassure clean athletes that we back their rights to legitimate, fair competition, and we must reassure sports fans across the Commonwealth and beyond that what they are witnessing on the field of play is honest, legitimate sport. Above all, I want every Commonwealth athlete competing at the Games to know that when we say zero tolerance to doping, we mean zero tolerance,” added Martin.
Announced in August 2017, the Partnership is a rigorous anti-doping programme designed to protect clean athletes and the integrity of the Games. The Partnership included the establishment of a pre-Games Anti-Doping Taskforce, which has been co-chaired by the CGF and ASADA, and comprised membership from GOLDOC, International Federations (IFs) and Regional and National Anti-Doping Organisations (RADOs and NADOs). By sharing intelligence and conducting testing on athletes prior to their arrival on the Gold Coast, the Taskforce has played a key role in the detection and prevention of doping in the lead up to the Games.
Effective today, and throughout the Games period, the Partnership will ensure a strategic approach to testing, striking a balance between the testing of medallists and target-testing in response to intelligence received from the Taskforce. Crucially, it will also draw on other sources of intelligence, including Australian law-enforcement organisations, in order to investigate all possible non-analytical anti-doping violations, which cannot be proven through traditional scientific testing, such as the possession and trafficking of banned substances.
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Chairman, Peter Beattie said: “GOLDOC is committed to working with games delivery partners to ensure we have fair and equitable games. Every athlete, no matter what their sport, should be rest assured that the Gold Coast will provide a level playing field.”
The Partnership will also implement a comprehensive sample storage and reanalysis programme. For the first time, every single sample collected during the Games-time period, will be tanked in long-term storage facilities, for future reanalysis under the jurisdiction of the CGF.
The programme will operate under the CGF Anti-Doping Standard, which is being adapted for Gold Coast 2018 by the Federation’s Medical Commission - chaired by Dr. M. Jegathesan, the CGF’s Honorary Medical Adviser, and Ms. Michele Verroken, CGF Medical Commission Honorary Secretary - in partnership with ASADA and GOLDOC. It is designed to be fully compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and will serve as “Anti-Doping Rules” to support a level playing field for the 4,600 athletes at the Games. This Standard sets out the rules for the selection of athletes, sample collection procedures and the process for adverse and unusual analytical findings and other anti-doping rule violations.
Courtesy: CGF
