31 Jul 2022

South African Institute for Drug-free Sport representative, Dr Amanda Classen-Smithers, has underscored the importance of educating athletes about the repercussions of doping.

In an interview on the sidelines of the anti-doping educator’s training conference in Gaborone on Saturday, Dr Classen-Smithers said often times athletes were expected to go through the routine process of testing, despite being clueless about the rules.

In that regard, Dr Classen-Smithers said a team of Botswana anti-doping educators would help in building knowledge from grassroots, elite level to international level.

“The recent cases of anti-doping highlight the need to educate athletes since problem areas seem to be cropping up. Educators will also educate the athlete’s support personnel including coaches,” she said.

She said building capacity was necessary for both Botswana Anti-Doping coordinating office and the South African institute to achieve drug-free sport.

She said World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and International Standard for Education (ISE) existed to fully educate the athletes before they were tested.

Botswana National Anti-Doping representative, Fredrick Seno, said the training would benefit the country in its quest to fight doping in sports.

“To date, we have seven cases of Anti-Doping Rules Violation within a period of 10 years and that alone shows that we have a lot of work to do before we can reach a point where we have zero cases,” he said.

Furthermore, Seno said education was a critical aspect of any anti-doping programme in the prevention of both intentional and unintentional doping, alongside other preventive measures like detection and deterrence.  ENDS