Every Athlete to Be Tested Thrice Before Tokyo Olympics: NADA Director General

New Delhi [India], Mar 7 (ANI): National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Director General Navin Agarwal on Friday said that every athlete will be tested for at least three times before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "We have got the list of the Olympic Qualifiers from the Indian Olympic Association and the core probables from the Sports Authority of India, and we have started the testing. We intend to be testing them for at least three times before the Olympics and most of them have already been tested either once or twice," Agarwal told ANI."We hope that by the time the Olympics are there, everybody would have been tested thrice and every member of the Indian team reaches Tokyo clean," he added.Agarwal also said that they conducted educational and awareness programmes at Khelo India and it is important to make athletes aware of the negative effects of doping at the initial stage."The Khelo India Games are meant for the budding players, particularly the Khelo India Youth Games. Khelo India University Games are quite mature athletes. The whole idea is that at the initial stage itself the athletes should be made aware that there should be no doping and the values of playing fair," he said."...We did a number of education and awareness programmes both for the Youth Games at Guwahati and University Games at Bhubaneshwar," Agarwal added. The National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) on August 23 lost its accreditation by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for six months after failing to match the International Standards for Laboratories (ISL).A Sports Ministry source on February 24 told ANI that the suspension on NDTL will continue as there are some technical issues that need to be rectified.Reflecting on the same, Agarwal said: "We have started testing cricketers this year and we are testing them in the same manner as we do with other players. NDTL is not functioning presently. So, we are sending the samples abroad for analysis." (ANI)

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