Sri Lanka’s weightlifting squad for the 2018 Commonwealth Games was paid a surprise visit by international anti-doping officials on Friday (16 March).
The out-of-competition testing for drugs was carried out under the authority of the International Weightlifting Federation’s Anti-Doping Commission and with an eye on ensuring that the sport is clean at the April 4-15 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The 11-strong weightlifting squad of men and women was so surprised that they kept the two foreign officials waiting for a few hours – simply because they couldn’t provide the urine samples immediately.
“They had to start drinking water. It will take some time before they can pass urine,” smiled Teamlanka weightlifting coach Bandara Wickramasinghe. 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Chinthana Vidanage was the first athlete to answer the call of nature.
“As of now, all these athletes are clean. We have tested them and I can say that they have nothing to worry about,” revealed Dr. Shiromi Pilapitiya, director testing and education, Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency.
The two Hungarian anti-doping officials flew into Sri Lanka on Thursday night. They had got in touch with officials from the Sri Lanka National Olympic Committee to find the whereabouts of the weightlifting team – a fact which NOC secretary general Maxwell de Silva was critical about.
“They had to get in touch with us to find out where the weightlifters were. This was because our athletes were not given access to WADA’s (World Anti-Doping Agency) online system where every international competitor is expected to keep authorities updated with their whereabouts out-of-competition,” De Silva pointed out.
“We have been asking the Sri Lanka Anti-Doping Agency for a long time to provide all the athletes with access to ADAMS (WADA’s Anti-Doping Administration and Management System that allows athletes to share information on their whereabouts) but they have not fully complied,” De Silva said.
“I have written to our Anti-Doping Agency again today and reminded them the urgency of providing all our international athletes with access to this system so that they will know they have to meet certain obligations out-of-competition,” De Silva added.
Luckily the weightlifting squad had a training session scheduled for Friday morning as such the entire squad had turned up. The only problem was that they kept the visiting officials waiting until they could oblige them with a urine sample.
Weightlifting is a top medal hope for Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Games. Teamlanka will send an 80-strong athlete-contingent in 13 sports to the Gold Coast showpiece.
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