Senior national athlete Achala Dias has been banned for four years after testing positive for taking a banned substance during the national selection trials held on 10 May at Diyagama.
The Anti Doping Agency (SLADA) set up a Disciplinary Committee to go into the matter, and based on their report a press briefing was held at National Institute of Sri Lanka yesterday to reveal details.
The 100 metre runner was placed second in the race but was found to be positive for taking an Anabolic Steroid, which is a banned drug by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Speaking to the press Prof. Arjuna de Silva Chairman of Anti Doping Agency said: “This is the first time in Sri Lanka an athlete has been banned for four years after an investigation done by a Disciplinary Committee.” The Committee was chaired by S.R.D. Bandaranayake (Additional Secretary Sports Department) and included Ravindra Fernando, Uditha Egalage, Rohini Fernandopulle and Maiya Gunasekara as committee members.
“Using supplements is very high at school level, especially among popular schools in Colombo and Kandy, and we need to prevent the usage of supplements. Last year we spent nearly 4.5 million rupees for anti doping tests. I think lack of knowledge of supplements is also a reason for this.” Added de Silva who further stated that the test was done according to international standard, and decision is a good lesson for present day athletes.
According to de Silva, She has used Metonolon and Trenbolone, which are Anabolic Steroids. These are synthetic variants of the familiar male sex hormone testosterone. The proper term for these compounds is anabolic-androgenic steroids (abbreviated AAS) – ‘anabolic’ referring to muscle-building and ‘androgenic’ referring to increased male sexual characteristics.
De Silva further said that two infamous supplements, Jack3D and Emorange has been banned by World Anti doping agency (WADA) yet widely available in Sri Lanka with many using it .
This has been second incident in recent time where Sri Lankan track and field athlete ban after sprinter Himasha Eashan’s ban in 2012. Nevertheless SLADA has collected 235 samples from athletes representing many sports last year while 5 of them had been tested positive.
