Home|Sports|BADC pleased with testing process at CARIFTA GamesSports
Simba FrenchSend an emailMay 4, 2023 161 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
The 50th CARIFTA Games is behind us, and life is back to normal … for the most part.
During the hustle and bustle of the event over the Easter holiday weekend, the Bahamas Anti-Doping Commission (BADC) was busy ensuring the integrity of the meet by testing athletes for banned substances. According to BADC Executive Director Petra Haven, the testing part of the process was smooth.
BADC engaged sample collectors and results management authority. Haven didn’t release a report, but said they are awaiting results from the samples that were examined at the CARIFTA Games. Before CARIFTA, BADC was the anti-doping authority at the Bahamas National High School Track and Field Championships and CARIFTA Trials at the end of March.
“Like any other testing mission, we were able to complete everything successfully with no issues,” Haven said. “We would have had an anti-doping educational talk with our national team prior to, so I know for sure our Bahamians understood that testing was happening. All the other teams were advised that testing would be happening as usual, so this was no different than any other event that we would host nationally. The only difference is we would have tested pretty much all the teams.”
Haven said once they get the results, they will publish them. The results from those samples can take between 14-21 days, or longer, to be processed. The samples were sent to a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited lab in Canada. Haven noted that they are unable to discuss any pending cases, if there are any, until an athlete outright admits, or their disciplinary hearings are completed.
Haven commended her team for making the athletes and athlete representatives comfortable during the testing process as some of the athletes were being tested for a first time.
“We use our testing almost like an educational session as well, so we walk the athletes or their representatives through each step, so that they could become more comfortable with the process,” Haven said. “There were some first-timers and I think as we all know, there would be some sort of nerves because you must now conduct this test in front of somebody, whether it’s your first time or second time. There were nerves, but we have a way of being able to talk to our athletes and let them be comfortable with the process, so they understand what’s happening, how it’s going to happen, how long it’s going to take. I think the most nerve-racking part is not being able to urinate right away, so we have to wait up to an hour or more sometimes for it to pass.”
Next up for BADC is the Bahamas Triathlon Association National Championships this weekend, then after that is the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) Beach Soccer Championships set for next week. They will also be working the CARIFTA triathlon that will be hosted here in The Bahamas in August. They will also be testing athletes prior to them traveling to the World Athletics Outdoor Championships set for August 19-27 in Budapest, Hungary.