The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) has clarified its position regarding assertions made on an international television interview programme In-depth with Graham Bensinger on January 19, 2011, about the standards of doping control activities in Jamaica.

The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission is the national testing organisation for Jamaica and operates according to the international standards for best practices established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and is guided by the tenets of the Jamaica Anti-Doping in Sports Act and Rules 2008.

These regulations and laws clearly set out specific standards and guidelines for testing, whereabouts information, doping control and results management. In addition, the operations of JADCO have been audited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) twice in the last three years and on each occasion JADCO was commended for its standards and the quality of its practices and operations.

According to JADCO, over the last three years “the commission has been actively testing athletes both in and out-of-competition according to our national test distribution plan, and at times on behalf of international federations. These tests resulted in seven adverse analytical findings in 2009.

“Any allegation that Jamaican athletes are not being tested during training is false and ridiculous to say the least and displays an ignorance of the international standards for out-of-competition testing of athletes.

“In 2010, the commission conducted 132 tests on senior and international athletes, 75 per cent of which were out-of-competition. These tests were conducted for the most part at athlete’s homes, work, and training facilities. Indeed, it is entirely possible for an athlete to be tested on multiple occasions, during any calendar year without any test being done at the athletes’ training facility, as out-of-competition tests are done based on the international standards of a one-hour testing window provided by the athlete in his or her whereabouts information.

“During our testing last year, most international athletes were tested three to five times for the six or seven months they spent in the island. Three to five tests on an athlete over a six-month period is possibly one of the highest testing rates in the world,” the JADCO release stated.

“In addition, JADCO is one of the few anti-doping organisations which use medical doctors as doping control officers, a practice that is way above the standards and requirements of the international standards for best practices set by WADA. The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, therefore, rejects any suggestion of inferior doping control practices under its administration,” it concluded.