STRIKE ANOTHER positive finding for the regional leader in anti-doping.
Director General of the World Anti-Doping Agency Dave Howman is lobbying for the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) to remain here after deeming the office’s five-year stint to be a major success.
Howman gave the vote of confidence yesterday during a Press conference at the Barbados Olympic Association’s headquarters one day after getting a verbal commitment from Minister of Sport Stephen Lashley.
“It has been one of the most successful RADOs of the 15 that we operate,” said the WADA head.
“The testing of the 2007 World Cup was done by the RADO [and] at that stage the International Cricket Council was not even doing testing. So if you look at it from a cricket perspective, this RADO led the world.
“So the minister’s very happy for Barbados to continue to fight doping in sport . . . the issue that we are now talking with him about is what I would describe as the nitty-gritty details about money,” added Howman.
Established in 2006, the Caribbean RADO serves as the chief anti-doping body for 14 other Caribbean countries, with Jamaica and Bahamas possessing their own organisation.
And the agency’s importance has further increased with the rise of Caribbean athletes on the world stage, exemplified by the arrival of newly-crowned 400-metre world champion Kirani James of Grenada.
“One of the reasons we came down to talk to the minister was that the leadership of the Caribbean in this area is very important, notably because if you look proportionate to the population in the Caribbean you have a very successful rate of athletes,” Howman reasoned.
“And the world obviously asks, why are you so successful? So it is important that the anti-doping movement continues in the region.”
According to chairman of the Caribbean RADO, Dr Adrian Lorde, this year was also vital to his office’s future as the WADA board planned to release a report on all the anti-doping bodies after testing them for complying with the regulations.
“We in Barbados have been there and we have been getting the other 14 countries in the Caribbean up to speed and we’re happy that we’ve been compliant,” Lorde contended.
Howman led a two-man contingent, with WADA’s director of education and programme development, Rob Koehler, on the two-day visit.
