EXECUTIVE Director of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO), Dr Patrece Charles-Freeman, says their goal this year is to get doping control into the schools and establish a more rigorous doping control plan.

“Sustainable development is one of the biggest goals this year; that is, getting doping control programmes into the curriculum of secondary schools and sporting colleges,” said Dr Charles-Freeman in JADCO News, their quarterly newsletter.

“Then our programmes would be taught to the athletes from secondary schools; the PE teachers will also be taught from sporting colleges,” said added.

“Doping control is not going to end. The better our athletes perform, the more stringent anti-doping will have to be and we’re here to ensure that the credibility of the athlete is sound.

“It is far better for Jamaica and athletes to have a national anti-doping organisation that is looking out for their rights. I would like to like to encourage more co-operation,” she pleaded.

According to Dr Charles-Freeman, JADCO conducted 124 tests and that consisted of both in- and out-of-competition, but mainly in competition.

“We also conducted 13 additional tests on behalf of the International Amateur Athletics Association (IAAF), so in total, 137 tests were done,” she said.

JADCO has established a registered testing pool and has been gathering athletes’ whereabouts information into their database and how to designate their 60-minute period from which to conduct out-of-competition testing.

To date, 11 sporting federations are in line with what JADCO is doing.

“We have more federations co-operating with us now. Last year we had our first luncheon ‘conversations with JADCO’ where we invited the heads of the sporting federations to talk and exchange ideas. It went well and our relationship continues to improve,” said Dr Charles-Freeman.

Meanwhile, there have been changes to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) list of prohibited substances, effective January 1, 2010.

Much of the changes are editorial and have to do with the addition of words and notifications to clarify descriptions and definitions, within the text of the list.

In some cases, additional examples have been added to supplement definitions and to make descriptions more complete.

For example, in the 2010 list, the heading of Hormones and Related Substances has been replaced by Peptide Hormones Growth Factors and Related Substances.

The complete list of alterations to the 2010 Prohibited List is available on the WADA website and are available from JADCO.