Jakarta, 6 September 2024
According to the plan, on the evening of September 9th, 2024, PON (National Sports Games) XXI 2024 will be officially opened by the President Joko Widodo at the Harapan Bangsa Stadium in Banda Aceh (Aceh Province). PON, which is being held for the first time in two provinces, namely Aceh Province and Northern Sumatra Province, will take place from September 9th to 20th , 2024, where the closing will be conducted at the Main Stadium of Deli Serdang (Northern Sumatra Province) on September 20th, 2024.
For the purpose of its participation in the successful implementation of PON 2024, IADO as NADO (National Anti-Doping Organization) in Indonesia is obliged to assist in terms of doping control, as mandated by WADA as regulated in the World Anti-Doping Code. There are the following certain information which should be shared to the public:
- Doping control at PON 2024 in Aceh and Northern Sumatra carried out by IADO will be very different compared to the previous duties carried out by LADI (Indonesian Anti-Doping Agency / institution which later changed its name to IADO in early February 2022) at PON and PEPARNAS (National Paralympic Games) 2021 in Papua. In Papua doping control was implemented by collecting samples only, whereas at PON in Aceh and Northern Sumatra there is not only sample collection, but it also includes anti-doping education as well as intelligence and investigation activities. These changes and expansion of activities have to be done due to the fact that since 2021, WADA’s policy pattern has shifted more towards not only testing activities, but also education as well as intelligence and investigations.
- The testing at PON and PEPARNAS in Papua had to be carried out under the supervision of JADA (Japan Anti-Doping Agency), considering that at that time LADI was being suspended by WADA. Consequently, it had to receive assistance from another NADO, and coincidentally the one appointed by WADA was JADA. There was however a positive side at that time, so that LADI could learn a lot from JADA about the performance that NADO of Indonesia should carry out to control doping. That relationship had a positive impact on IADO, because when IADO was approaching to have to be audited by the WADA Audit Team in April 2023, several months earlier, or approximately in November 2022, it was visited by a Special Team from JADA, which voluntarily provided many very important suggestions for IADO to prepare an inspection by a WADA audit in April 2023. It turned out that a number of strategies presented by JADA were quite effective in discussing with the WADA Audit Team.
- For the purpose of ensuring that doping control at PON 2024 can be carried out as proper as possible, then from August 12th to 15th, 2024, IADO held trainings organized to prepare for doping control in Medan, including both for preparation of officers handling sample collection (DCO and assisted by Chaperone), educators and investigators. Similar activities also took place in Banda Aceh from August 19th to 22nd, 2024. The local DCOs and Chaperones (both assigned in Aceh and Northern Sumatera) should assist 4 Controller, 7 central DCMs (Doping Control Managers) and 25 Lead DCOs (Doping Control Officers), who have been licensed.
- In addition, on August 1st, 2024, the TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) Committee held a virtual outreach about TUE to all doctors and medical support teams for each contingent. The aim was to make a better understanding of TUE comprehensive. Meanwhile, to reduce the possibility of bodybuilding athletes being exposed to doping as it occurred in several previous PONs, has forced its national federation to implement a special regulation in which the related sport program was the only sport whose athletes must already hold ADEL or the World Anti-Doping Agency’s mobile application for Anti-Doping Education and Learning. Without an ADEL digital certificate, any bodybuilding athlete will not be allowed to compete.
- At the previous PON in Papua, urine samples were collected from 718 athletes out of a total of 7,038 athletes who competed in that multi-event, in which all samples of them were sent to the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Qatar. Meanwhile, for the PON in Aceh and Northern Sumatra, IADO would have collected 800 athlete urine samples, which are more or less divided into 400 samples in Aceh and 400 samples in Northern Sumatra from a total of approximately 13,037 athletes competing (the detailed data is: 6,359 athletes competed in Aceh, whereas 6,678 athletes competed in North Sumatra). All samples will be sent to the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Bangkok. Up to the evening of September 5th, 2024, IADO has sent 34 samples directly from Medan to Bangkok, enabling the laboratory to immediately analyze them. Such analysis will take a minimum of around 21 days for the results to be known. As it has been known, although the event opening will take place on September 9th, 2024, however, since August 28th, 2024 a number of sports have been competed (namely Water Polo, Gymnastics, Rowing and Weightlifting) and samples have been collected of those who are declared champions, which their urine samples were then immediately collected from the champions.
- IADO admitted that it needed strong efforts and hard work to prepare for doping control at PON 2024. IADO, facilitated by the Board of Directors of KONI (National Sports Committee of Indonesia), has held various meetings for doping control since almost a year ago, in which several of them were attended by representatives of the Aceh Provincial Health Office and the North Sumatra Provincial Health Office. Initially the main problem related to budget limitations, but on the other hand IADO remained committed to support the success of doping control. The next problem was the limited number of licensed DCOs who could be assigned on the basis of not fulfilling the minimum reward obtained considering that they also work in their respective offices every day. Furthermore, the following issue corresponded with the requirement that each DCS (Doping Control Station) or chamber where samples are collected should at least comply with the international standards set by WADA.
- By design, IADO will actually assign those who have just been selected as PRESI (Education Presenters). However, due to limited time considering that PRESI was only announced on August 30th, 2024, it was impossible to assign them to help educational activities during PON 2024, except to utilize existing IADO Education Directorate employees.
- Fortunately, both the Aceh Health Office and the Northern Sumatra Health Office are quite cooperative in facilitating IADO’s needs, and on the contrary IADO has also reduced the number of activities that have an impact on the budget, for example educational activities are not carried out in every city where there is a competition venue except in Banda Aceh, Medan and Deli Serdang only. For education activities in Banda Aceh, these will be implemented on the form of anti-doping campaign (outreach) near certain competition venues such as in Weightlifting, 5×5 Basketball, Tennis, Sport Climbing and Rowing. Then, similar activities will be carried out in Medan and Deli Serdang, namely for Athletics, Taekwondo, Badminton, Karate and Jujitsu. In addition, the number of samples collected had to be reduced, but what is important is that it did not have an impact on at least all Olympic sports whose samples should be collected. In essence, IADO fully supports the successful holding of PON 2024. IADO hopes that the implementation of doping control at PON will increase athletes’ awareness of the doping problem, because now, for example, just avoiding sample collection can be considered doping even though it has not been proven that he / she has consumed a prohibited substance.
Jakarta, 6 September 2024.
Chairman of IADO,
Gatot S. Dewa Broto