The participants of the Anti-Doping Awareness and Education and Talk pose for a picture during the Leadership Camp at the Youth Centre in the capital on Friday. Picture: Courtesy of Sukardi Kaderi
The Brunei Darussalam Anti-Doping Committee (BDADC) Education and Outreach Team continued its effort in combating doping in sports by giving an Anti-Doping Awareness and Education and Talk during the Leadership Camp - Bruneian Experiencing Solidarity Training 4D Best 2014 - at the Youth Centre in the capital on Friday.
Thirty-seven participants, comprising youth and athletes from all four districts, attended the talk facilitated by Sukardi Kaderi, the Head of Education and Outreach of the BDADC. Sukardi briefed the participants on doping and its history, anti-doping rules violations, doping control processes and the health consequences and effects of doping.
The talk, organised by the Department of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), was a part of the Education and Outreach's plan to promote the theme of 'Play True and Clean Sports' to the athletes and public in the country.
"We are hoping to hold more education and outreach programmes in the future to educate all people, not just athletes about doping," said Sukardi in a recent interview with The Brunei Times. "Next, we are targeting all the sports federations and associations in the country... sports administrators and coaches in the near future," he said.
His Royal Highness Prince Hj Sufri Bolkiah, the president of the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council (BDNOC), last month called for more emphasis to be placed on creating awareness of the risks and consequences of doping in sports.
Two national athletes were involved in doping cases this year and HRH Prince Hj Sufri Bolkiah said that educating the athletes should be something relevant parties should look into. The BDADC is a government supported national anti-doping organisation under the MCYS.
It was established in 2006 and reformed in 2007. The organisation has been strongly committed to propagating, promoting and implementing the Anti-Doping policies of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in its true spirit.
WADA is an anti-doping agency that educates athletes at major international and multi-sport events through direct one-on-one interaction with anti-doping experts.
The agency facilitates the coordination of regional anti-doping organisations by bringing together countries where there are no or limited anti-doping activities so that they can pool resources to implement anti-doping regulations.
WADA and BDADC believe that a long-term solution to preventing doping is through effective value-based education programmes that can foster anti-doping behaviour and create a strong anti-doping culture.