Cayman hosts anti-doping meeting

By Cayman Sports Buzz
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Updated: 20 October 2016

The Cayman Islands is to host a two-day annual board meeting of the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) starting Sunday, 23 October 2016.

High on the agenda will be deliberations on the board’s governance, electing a new vice chair and receiving the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) latest update. It is likely that the latter report will provide further insights into WADA’s derailment of Russia’s state-sponsored doping scheme, just ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Hosting the meeting for the first time since the board’s inception 11 years ago, the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee (CIOC), and its sub-committee the Medical & Anti-Doping Commission (MADC), the registered doping control body for RADO locally, is expecting 14 delegates from across the region. Members will fly in for the talks from Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Turks and Caicos.

The Cayman Islands contingent will include Caribbean RADO executive member and CIOC President Don McLean as well as MADC Chairperson James Myles.

Sports Minister, Hon. Osbourne Bodden, will give Sunday’s opening remarks. ‘The Caribbean RADO Board meeting is taking place at a critical time, following on the heels of the doping scandal in Rio and the upcoming 2017 World Championships,” he said ahead of the two-day meeting.

“This meeting will help strengthen our Medical & Anti-Doping Commission with its mandate to ensure our athletes maintain their track record of remaining drug free.”

Mr. McLean commented: “As an executive board member on the Caribbean RADO, I am pleased that this year’s AGM is being hosted in the Cayman Islands.”

“It is extremely important for each country to conduct anti-doping activities in sports to prevent athletes from getting an unfair advantage and to preserve their health. Here in the Cayman Islands our main focus is on anti-doping education in the schools and we regularly test our elite athletes.”

The 2016 board meeting will also feature member country updates appraising delegates of the progress made on anti-doping within the region. Mr. McLean and Mr. Myles will speak on the efficacy of local anti-doping measures targeting youth athletes throughout the country’s school system.

Caribbean RADO is part of a global network of RADOs. These consist of several countries in each geographic region and often mobilise and pool resources to implement anti-doping measures. (GIS)