PNG anti-doping body tells sports to be compliant

SPORTS in Papua New Guinea will be in jeopardy if quick action is not taken to enable the work of the Papua New Guinea Sports Anti-Doping Organisation (PNGSADO).
The deadline of March 16 set by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to comply will lapse throwing doubt on PNG athletes’ eligibility to compete in international events like the Intrust Super Cup and the upcoming Pacific Games in Samoa.
Dr Bernie Amof, pictured, said the lack of Government support had affected its full operations since it came into existence in 2006 but this time, national teams would be affected as the 2019 Pacific Games looms and the Intrust Super Cup to start next month.
“March 16 is the deadline that we have to answer this code of compliance, which is about this toolkit for monitoring our activities in the anti-doping programme,” Dr Amof said.
“If we don’t comply or don’t meet the standards, then we will be banned from competing or sending our PNG athletes to compete in any sport.”
He added that despite the Government signing a Unesco Treaty in 2006 to support the work of anti doping in PNG, to date, PNGSADO remains underfunded and under resourced.
“We are still waiting for funds and that has really affected a lot of our activities and therefore we are on the way to be being non-compliant,” Dr Amof said.
Earlier this year, Russia was found non-compliant after missing the Dec 31 doping deadline set by the WADA while late last year PNG champion weightlifters Dika Toua and Morea Baru were ruled ineligible to participate in the World Championships after failing to adhere to the ‘ADMAS’ programme thereby violating a doping rule.
Both star athletes are now ineligible to participate at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
“There are serious consequences in taking drugs in any major event and organisation like the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games including the Pacific Games and in our region.
“They all adopt the same policies and guidelines.
“We (PNGSADO) have to establish ourselves, deliver these services to our sport in the community,” Amof said.
“The constraint the organisation has being facing is a lack of resources and funding to carry out our activities.”
Amof said to operate an anti-doping organisation was a full time job not voluntary and needed K1million annually to stay operational.
Speaking at a PNG Sports Foundation-hosted National Sports Policy Review workshop last week, Amof said the Government needed to take the work of the organisation seriously.
Amof is a sports physician with a Masters degree from the University of Canberra and has been involved with Team PNG since 1991 where PNG was the first ever Pacific Islands country to conduct in-competition drug testing during the then South Pacific Games.