RADO Central Asia hosted succesful meeting in Almaty

Within the World Anti-Doping Agency´s (WADA) program of fighting against

doping in sport, a Regional Anti-Doping Organization in Central Asia Conference was

held in Almaty on 22 and 23 of May 2014. The Conference was organized with the

support of the Republic of Kazakhstan Agency of Sport and Physical Culture together

with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The conference´s goal was to improve the development of anti-doping programs in

Asia and training for the processing of doping test results by doping control

specialists. International participants of the conference were:

• WADA Director of education and programs development - Rob Koehler,

• WADA Senior Manager of programs development - Tom May,

• Director of WADA Asian office - Kazuhiro Hayashi,

• Director of the Anti-Doping Department at the Asian Olympic Council - Nadia Al

Shamali,

• Director of the Results processing department at the UK Anti-Doping Center -

Arthur Graham Mark.

The official participants from Kazakhstan:

• Deputy Chairman of Kazakhstan Agency of Sport and Physical Culture –

E. Kanagatov,

●Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of

Kazakhstan - T. Dossymbetov,

●Member of the NOC Executive Board and member of WADA Foundation Board –

A. Kryukov.

In his opening speech at the Conference, Mr. Kanagatov thanked WADA for its

continuous work in promotion of anti-doping programs in the Central Asian region

and the great support of Kazakhstan National Anti-Doping Center such as the help in

training of the Center specialists, consultation, and experience exchange programs.

Mr. Kanagatov emphasized that "Protection and promotion of a fair sport is an

ongoing global challenge that requires cross-sectoral cooperation and actions on

the international level. So, now it is necessary to develop and integrate

appropriate response measures to minimize the threat imposed by different and

changing forms of doping. Developed sport infrastructure in our country allows

taking deserved places in international sport events. Kazakhstan athletes are

more and more competitive in many sports. And we host essential international

competitions every year. So, there are 29 scheduled international competitions in

sports in 2014 that include 4 World Championships, 4 World Cups, 7 Asian

Championships and 14 international tournaments. In 2017, Almaty will host the

Winter International Universiade, moreover, Almaty is one of the candidate cities

for the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.Increasing success in sport, unfortunately,

brings "the other side" to light.. Kazakhstani also face doping problems. In 2013,

some athletes did not pass doping-controls at the big international competitions.

This is another strong motivation for strengthening measures of anti-doping

program in our country."

Further, Mr. Rob Koehler, WADA Director of education and programs development,

noted that due to the active work, commitment in "fair" sport and personal support of

the management of Kazakhstan Agency of Sport and Physical Culture anti-doping

programs are successfully developing in the Central Asian region including

educational programs and doping control itself. Mr. R. Koehler expressed

confidence that with such an active participation of Kazakhstan in promoting the idea

of a "dopingfree sport", the region has a great potential to become one of the

spearheads in the fight against doping.

The key point which was discussed at this conference is to develop an effective plan

for the revision of the anti-doping rules in the RADO Central Asia

countries-members under the new World Anti-Doping Code, which was adopted at

the World Conference against Doping in Sport in Johannesburg in October 2013.

New Anti-Doping Code will come into force on January 1 2015.

Concurrently with the Conference, a seminar on specialists training for review of

doping control samples results took place. The seminar was chaired by,

Mr. Arthur Mark Graham from the United Kingdom, who heads the Results

processing department at the UK Anti-Doping Center. All RADO Central Asia

participants were invited to the training seminar. After the seminar a Disciplinary

Committee will be established. It will be responsible for examination of results of

the doping control samples of athletes among the RADO Central Asia countries.

At the end of the conference a resolution was adopted with the aim is to strengthen

the actions of anti-doping control and promotion of educational programs in the

region.

For further information:

Oksana Rizanenko,

Head of PR and Marketing Department

Almaty 2022 Bid Committee

Kazakhstan

+7 707 703 39 64

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