The Sri Lankan weightlifters will not feature in the Youth Olympics 2018 which will be held in Buenos Aires as they were barred from taking part in the Asian trials which was held in Uzbekistan from 20th to 30th of April.
Sri Lanka sent a team of five weightlifters to the Asian trials but the contingent was not allowed to take part in the competition by the organizers as they had not updated the ‘Anti-Doping Administration and Management System’ (ADAMS) introduced by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to have information about the athletes off competition which would allow the officials of WADA to conduct tests on the athletes unannounced. The system also provides updated information regarding banned substances and supplements.
The Sri Lankan Anti-Doping Agency (SLADA) who are the local arm of the WADA in the country are responsible for educating the local athletes on the said system is said to have informed and educated them on the process and have supplied them with the logins for the ADAMS system but the athletes have failed to update the system accordingly.
Speaking to ThePapare.com regarding the ADAMS system, Prof. Arjun De Silva – Chairman of SLADA, added that “This system has been put in place for the benefit of WADA in order to have all the information about the athletes in one place, the athletes are given a login and the from our end (SLADA) its only Dr. Shiromi (Director Education and Testing) who has the login. The athletes are supposed to login and input the details about their whereabouts while we must update all the test results regarding the athletes which will create a biological passport for them which will show their progression. In this instance the junior weightlifters have failed to properly update their whereabouts which is considered a form of cheating although they have not been fined or suspended they have been barred from part taking in the Asian trials which is unfortunate. But, it serves as a big warning to all the athletes in the country as it is important to abide by the WADA rules and regulations as they are very strict”
With the lifters not allowed to take part in the Asian trials, Sri Lankan juniors will not be featured in the Youth Olympics in October. While it is unfortunate that Sri Lanka will miss out on an opportunity take part in a global competition, it comes as an important warning to all the athletes and federations of the country that they need to comply by the regulations put in place by WADA to avoid similar incidents from taking place in the future.
