Elite athletes of all nationalities who perform at the international level are registered in a testing pool for anti-doping purposes. They are required to provide whereabouts information to the International Sport Federation (IF) or National Anti-doping Organization (NADO). Jamaica Anti-doping Commission (JADCO) is the NADO for Jamaican athletes. JADCO, through doping control officers (DCO), can turn up at inconvenient times during the athlete’s schedule to make the athlete vulnerable if the athlete cheated or intends to cheat.

Recently Andre Russell and Odean Brown were sanctioned for wherabouts violations or sanctioned for failing to adhere to Article 2.4 of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) rules.I am not sure what exactly Kaliese Spencer and Riker Hylton are charged for, but these are two of our senior elite athletes who have medalled in reputable international games. Some in the media have reported different violations interchangeably for them — both Article 2.3, which speaks to evading sample collection, and Article 2.4 which speaks to whereabouts failure.Article 2.3 is different from article 2.4. If the athlete appears to be avoiding the testing officer, or refusing to give a sample after notification, he or she can be charged under Article 2.3. If the athlete, on the other hand, misses three testing dates or failed to file his or her whereabouts three times within 12 months, he or she can be sanctioned under Article 2.4.Regardless of the article involved in the recent debacles or sanctions, I posit that the Jamaican athletes, JADCO, and the Jamaica sporting bodies, including the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) and the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) are behaving archaic.In this modern time there is a paperless format (iPad) to document a testing request on a doping control official record (DCOR). The paperless DCOR on the iPad provides excellent recording and allows athletes to see their documentation and testing data record through a secure online account via smartphones or other electronic devices.There can be no discrepancy because there is immediate cross change of data between the athlete and the DCO. I was listening to the Andre Russell case and I got turned off with JADCO saying one thing and Andre saying something else. Mark you, I am not taking sides with Andre or JADCO. All I am saying is location technology would have bought clarity to the case.Odean, in his case, indicated that at one stage the DCO made contact with his wife, but by that time he had already left home and was deemed to have missed the test. Where is modern Global Positioning System (GPS) in the relationship between JADCO and the athletes? The United States Anti-doping Agency (USADA) has an Athlete Express App and website, where an athlete can use an autofill calendar to update the location calendar from whereever the athlete is.There are reminders if an athlete has not signed in. There is an inbuilt

Google Map that can pinpoint locations and times and therefore can be used as location verification. I am getting absolutely tired of hearing of Brand Jamaica’s advanced sporting prowess and paradoxically seeing the weak technological development linked to that brand. How much would it take to have an App with GPS feature so that the athlete can produce and modify a daily whereabouts calendar?We do not have to reinvent the wheel. I think JAAA, JADCO, JCA, Racers Track Club, Sprintec Track Club, Akan Track Club, Cameron Blazers Track Club, etc should all go to the USADA website:

www.usada.org/testing/whereabouts/ or get the app on their mobile devices.If the whereabouts App cannot be used in Jamaica because of location issues, Jamaica may be able to develop one before the 2017 World Championships. Jamaican athletes have been associated with too many avoidable anti-doping rule violations and this trend needs to be cauterised immediately. Jamaica go and

Google Play your whereabouts issues, these are modern times!! 

Editor’ note: Dr Irving is a senior lecturer in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies,

Mona.