Jamaica doubles doping officers

(Trinidad Express) Jamaica’s anti-doping agency has doubled the number of doping control officers on the Caribbean island that has produced the world’s most dominant sprinters.

The four newly trained doping control officers give the country eight, the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission said yesterday.

Training was done through a partnership between JADCO and the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Sport. The new staffers are certified to carry out doping control for two years.

Jamaica’s anti-doping programme was audited by the World Anti-Doping Agency last year after a former director revealed it didn’t drug-test its athletes for months before they dazzled at the 2012 London Olympics.

Yesterday, JADCO also announced it received funding from the United Nations to train more sample-collection personnel. It said it hopes to add blood collection to its doping procedures in the coming months.