Anti-doping testing for Belizean athletes

Five athletes picked at random will be undergoing anti-doping tests. The results will determine future participation in international games. The National Anti-Doping Organization of Belize is collecting samples from five athletes who will represent the country at the tenth annual Central American Games in San Jose, Costa Rica from March third to the seventeenth. But before the games, participants from athletics, football, softball, volleyball and basketball, will be selected by doping control officers to provide samples to be tested for enhancement drugs. While only five samples will be taken during the next two days, by the end of the year five other random checks will be conducted. The athletes, who have adverse analytical findings, will be placed into ADAMS, the world anti-doping agency data bank, where their names will be flagged. If tested positive, an athlete will not be allowed to represent the country in international outings and can be banned for a minimum of two years.

Patrick Henry, Director, National Sports Council

“This is the second time we are taking the out of competition test; it is the first time we are doing it just before major games. The Central American game is the smallest of the games on the IOC calendar but it is the only games that we send the biggest contingent from this country to. Based on that and mandated by the regional Anti-Doping Organization, we must execute five out of competition tests and these tests are random selections for the athletes. The disciplines we are looking at athletics, softball, volleyball, football and basketball. The five major sports and between the hours of six this morning and midnight on the twenty-third, five out of competition tests will be executed by the National Anti-Doping Organization. The athletes they don’t know who they are, it is unannounced; they will get to know that they are selected when the chaperon, who is trained, will execute the warrant to them and they have one hour after that warrant is executed to make themselves available to the doping control officers. There are; one they will not be able to represent the particular discipline, they will not be allowed to represent the country of Belize, the result management comes quickly which means they will go before the Result Management Committee, those are the lawyers. Belize does have a member on the regional Result Management Committee; they will hear the case; it’s a live case they will hear and they will decide the fate of the athlete. The sanctions are normally two to four years in the first instance after the second sanction; the athlete will be banned for life.”

The process is strict because if an athlete does not present himself to the doping control officers within one hour of receiving the warrant, he will be deemed positive. The athlete will be given another opportunity and if he or she violates again, they will be entered into ADAMS for a positive test.  In 2012, Kleon Coleman of the Belize National Volleyball Team tested positive and had to go before a Results Management Committee to present his case and was given a six month sanction. Also in 1997, the National Men’s Softball team of Belize was stripped of the silver medal at the Central American Games when one of its players tested positive for a prohibited substance.