The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) is leaving no stone unturned to catch doping offenders this time. It has approved a test distribution plan of 1500 doping control tests, 250 blood tests, 150 EPO and 150 pre-competition tests. The numbers are the highest for any Commonwealth Games edition.
Dr Munish Chander, Deputy Director General (Doping Control) of the OC said, "To implement this, the CGF has constituted a nine-member medical commission chaired by M. Jegathesan of Malaysia."
Chander added, "The doping control will be operational from Sep 23 to Oct 14. The athlete's selection for the test will be done randomly. The commission could call any medallist and even do target testing."
457 Doping Control Officials (DCOs) have been trained for the purpose. The CGF has also nominated five international DCOs (from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Oman, Kazakhstan and Singapore). The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has deployed a team of independent observers to oversee the arrangements.
A dope centre has been set up at the Games village and the command centre will be at the headquarters. All the venues will have doping control stations.