The Sri Lanka Anti Doping Agency launched its ‘Drug Reference App’ (DR App) at a ceremony held at the SLADA centre in Colombo on Tuesday July 30.
With the launch of this APP Sri Lanka also reached another milestone and became the first country in South Asia to introduce same. The ceremony was attended by Professor Arjuna de Silva Chairman, SLADA and Dr. Seevali Jayawickrama, Director General SLADA.
Professor Arjuna addressing the media stated that an APP of this nature will definitely be of assistance to gain good knowledge about drugs that come under the ban described by the World Anti Doping Authority (WADA) for sportsmen and women. The App also gives guidelines to athletes on what type of drugs that should not be consumed by all involved in sporting activities.
The newly introduced DR App will not only help those involved in sports but also to other sectors like doctors, coaches, trainers and the younger generation who are hoping to be sports stars in the future and their parents.
Dr. Jayawickrama in his address said that the Sri Lanka Anti Doping Agency was separated from the Sports Medicine Unit five years ago with the aim of educating sportsmen and women of the dangers of drug use.
“In doing so, the aim is at specified targets to achieve success through this new DR App. With the introduction of the DR App each and every person who is able to download the site will gain a thorough knowledge of dangerous drugs which are harmful to their system,” said Dr. Jayawickrama.
Officer in charge of Information YAU Medhavi explaining the values of the DR App said that with this new technology freely available, any person interested is capable of most of downloading the DR App to their mobile phone or on their computers. Once the downloading is done, they will be able to find the descriptions of the banned drugs that should not be taken at all (marked in red), or cannot be taken during competition (marked in yellow) and those that can be taken at any time (marked in green).
But SLADA will continue to carry out its duties in an independent and transparent manner by testing athletes at random to keep them in perfect condition. Earlier, the practice was done only by testing the urine sample, but at present SLADA has made it a must to do blood tests on athletes.
More information on the DR App could be gained through http//slatidoping.org/app.html
Bernard Perera
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