IWF proves it’s serious about the anti-doping fight
At the IWF Congress held in Antalya on 16th September 2010, the International Federation demonstrated its strength and proved that it is extremely serious about its fight against the plague of doping.
As it is know, an important part and condition to battle doping in sport is the supply of the so-called “athletes’ whereabouts” information, which may serve as a basis for unannounced out-of-competition controls. the IWF Anti-Doping Policy (just like the WADA Code) in place since 2009 clearly specifies that the whereabouts information must be submitted by the National Federations to the IWF before specified deadlines on all members of the national teams. In spite of this being a general obligation and despite several reminders it was found that 19 out of the 81 nations that entered competitors to the World Championships in Antalya failed to comply with their obligation to submit the whereabouts information on their athletes.
The IWF Anti-Doping Commission discussed the issue; this was followed by an in-depth deliberation by the IWF Executive Board. The option of not allowing these countries to participate in Antalya was seriously contemplated. Finally, the Board decided to issue a notice of serious warning to the 19 National Federations concerned, saying that this was the last time they would be allowed to take part; this notice entailing a 5,000$ fine; and failing to pay the fine would entail the cancellation of all results by the team concerned at the WWC 2010.
The IWF thus issued another clear message to its membership that it will not tolerate any serious diversion from the track of the anti-doping fight it chose to walk on many years ago.
