Barbadian Jasper Blades travels to Singapore this week to be one of the few international Doping Control Officers (DCO) at the first-ever Youth Olympic Games. This will be the first international experience for this National Sports Council athletics coach, who was trained as a DCO in 2005. He has worked locally, regionally in Jamaica and Cuba, and as far as Argentina and Brazil, conducting doping controls both in and out of competition on behalf of the National Anti-Doping Commission (NADC), Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organisation (RADO), and international sports federations. He was the lead DCO at the ICC Twenty20 Cricket Cup held here earlier this year.Dr Adrian Lorde, chairman of both the NADC and RADO, said: “For Mr Blades to have been accepted by the Organising Committee of this inaugural Games is an honour for Barbados and the Caribbean and shows the high regard that they have for our doping control officers. “Jasper has worked with the youth all of his life and this must have been in his favour when the Caribbean RADO applied for this international opportunity.” He follows Antiguan Kristy Dickenson, who performed with distinction as an International Doping Control Officer at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver earlier this year.The Youth Olympic Games are being held from August 14 to 26. More than 3 600 athletes, aged 14 to 18 years from 104 countries, will participate in 26 sports.
(PR/SAT)
