Bangkok, Thailand - The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has pledged its full support for the future plans and initiatives of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following productive discussions at the two-day Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO) Conference in Bangkok.
The fifth biannual conference, held jointly by RADO and the OCA from 10-11 April, focussed on raising awareness of doping issues in the 16 RADO regions.
The conference included presentations on the current anti-doping landscape; the activities, achievements and challenges of each region; testing requirements, education strategies; and WADA Code compliance.
A total of 134 countries from the 16 RADOs were in attendance at the conference, as well as WADA Director-General Olivier Niggli, WADA Deputy Director-General Rob Kehler and OCA Director-General Husain Al Musallam.
Speaking after the conference, Husain Al Musallam said:
"The OCA is delighted to co-host the conference for the fifth successive time, demonstrating our ongoing determination to protect the clean athletes.
"The presentations and workshops yesterday and today initiated some very productive discussions, and once again highlighted the need for a cooperative effort of all stakeholders to win this fight. WADA and the RADOs deserve praise for their continued efforts to creating a world of sport without doping.
"It is vitally important that all stakeholders in the Olympic Movement, as well as government authorities, have the same level of commitment to securing a doping-free future for sport.
"We fully support the excellent WADA initiatives dedicated to achieving this objective, such as the athlete-focussed ‘Speak Up!’ initiative."
Al Musallam stated that the OCA full supports and welcome the news that Russia is making very good progress on the road to regain their WADA compliance status, including Kuwait and Mauritius, and that there is clear progress being made by the non-compliance countries outside of Asia - Russia and Mauritius and in Asia Kuwait.
It is in the best interests of the global sporting community to have the best clean athletes from all nations competing in the highest-level at international competitions. However, it is also important that the process in reaching this stage is carefully considered."
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