New anti-doping policy extends maximum penalties

Flanders’ new anti-doping policy approved last week is more efficient and more customer-friendly, sports minister Philippe Muyters said. The new policy comes into force on 31 March.

International anti-doping policy is governed by the code of the World Anti-Doping Authority and any country taking part in international competitions has to conform. Flanders, Muyters said, already has a strong tradition in fighting doping.

“The aim of the policy is to protect clean athletes and to ensure clean training, in top sports as much as in everyday sports experiences,” he said. “As the dopers become more inventive, so must we become tougher and smarter, without letting go of our humanity. Our aim is to become more efficient and more user-friendly.”

Included in the new rules is an extension of the maximum penalty for deliberate use of doping, from two years to six years. The statute of limitations, which makes it impossible to prosecute an offence after a certain term, is extended from eight to 10 years.

Athletes accused of doping will retain their right to be heard before any suspension takes effect. For a particular class of drugs, the penalty will be restricted to a reprimand if the athlete can demonstrate how the drug came to be in his or her system.

A new system of “intelligent testing” will be introduced, in which the World Anti-Doping Authority supplies information on the most likely substances and the most likely means of delivery, which will determine the methods used by anti-doping authorities to track down the use of the drugs concerned.

At the same time, the anti-doping authority in Flanders will be able to decide whether to apply its own sanctions or to leave the question to the sports federation in the case of elite athletes.

“Now that the new rules are in place, I would like to issue a warm invitation to the sporting world and everyone with sport close to their heart, to make every effort and to work together to fight doping,” Muyters said.

photo by Patrick Hattori/Het Nieuwsblad