Starting this year, the Philippine Sports Commission will no longer conduct random drug testing on athletes participating in international meets in the country.
This includes the coming 2019 Southeast Asian Games later this year, some months after the PCSM has gone full blast with a new kind of procedure known as smart drug testing.
Dr. Alexander Pineda, head of the Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization (PHI-NADO), an independent body organized by the PSC, said this right before the start of the 2019 Southeast Asian Regional Antidoping Organization board meeting at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila.
“It’s targeted. The reason is, we would like to use whatever available resources we have. And we need to go full blast this year,” said Pineda.
In random testing, an individual athlete will be picked from a group who have joined a competition.He will have blood or urine sample tested for banned substances as listed by the World Anti Doping Agency.
In smart testing, specific individuals who have been performing well will be chosen for such tests and a certain substance as well.
As for the coming SEA Games, Pineda said they are coming up with plans and protocols to test all medallists of certain substances that have been put on the banned list by the SEA Region Antidoping Organization.
“We need to get information on these athletes outside of their medal wins,” said Pineda.
The PSC, according to Pineda, have been slowly introducing smart testing over the last three years.
And they have already done this in triathlon, cycling, athletics, and the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers 2019 among others.
Among the guests of the meeting are Kazuhiro Hayashi World Anti-Doping Association Director for Asia and Oceania; Director for Program Development and NADO/RADO Relations Tom May, SEARADO Chairman Patrick Goh, who is also a Sports Physician and International Sports Medicine Specialist.
In the two-day meeting, discussions will be conducted on the World Anti-Doping Code Compliance by Tom Mat, who is the director for Program Development and National Anti Doping Organization/RADO Relations.
Other speakers are WADA Asia/Oceania Regional Office director Kazuhiro Hayashi, Director, Asia/Oceania; SEA Rado chairman Patrick Go, Chairman and Gobinathan Nair, SEA RADO Director General; and Pineda.