Former national track and field athletes Hydiane Harper-Simmons and Sheridan Kirk gave their personal experiences and opinions on doping in sport when the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs hosted an awareness seminar on Friday. Harper-Simmons, a former 100m and 200m sprinter, and 800m runner Kirk were speaking at the first seminar on the topic at the Rovanel’s Resort Hotel, Crown Point before a gathering of 150 secondary school students.
The seminar is part of a nationwide awareness campaign on doping in sport ahead of pending legislation to establish a National Anti Doping Organisation in T&T. A character called “Dexter” plays the role of an athlete who considers using banned substances to succeed in sport. Dexter then listens, along with the students, to information about the World Anti-Doping Agency and what they do as well as the physical and legal consequences of doping.
Students were then given more personal attention at booths set up for interaction with legal officers, doping control officers and Athlete Ambassadors. Today, the seminars will continue at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo from 9 am to 11 am while on Friday it will be held at the Central Regional Indoor Sporting Arena, Chaguanas, also from 9 am to 11 am. The athlete ambassadors for the Jean Pierre Complex event will be an all-female trio of Harper-Simmons, long jumper Cherisse Bacchus and hammer thrower Candice Scott.
Over the course of the seminars, the students will be privy to information about the health risks and career consequences of doping in sport as well as the testing process and the legal implications of such offenses according to the World Anti-Doping Code. This country acceded to the UNESCO International Convention on Doping in Sport in 2007 and as such, has certain responsibilities to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Among the responsibilities is the formation of a national anti-doping organisation, which the Ministry plans to introduce after the necessary legislation is tabled in Parliament and adopted as law. Two leading sporting organisations—the T&T Olympic Committee (T&TOC) and the T&T Alliance for Sport and Physical Education (T&TASPE)—have partnered with the Ministry to deliver the six-part educational series.