QCOSTARICA – The coordinator of National Anti-doping Commission (Comisión Nacional Antidopaje – CONAD CR), Cesar Sanchez, stated today that thanks to an agreement signed by Costa Rica and Cuba, the official drug tests of Costa Rican athletes will take place in a Cuban laboratory.
The CONAD CR has the objective of training athletes, to ensure the purity of fair play in Costa Rican sport. The commission is also responsible for planning, coordinating, implementing, monitoring and promoting improvements in doping control. Sanchez confirmed that they will be taking some 400 samples in the remainder of the year.
Sanchez stressed that a more proactive vision aims to share the knowledge to athletes, family and leaders, both at the amateur level in schools and colleges and of sports associations and federations.
“With this strategy, we want to change paradigms, be seen as drivers of fair play, of the importance of socializing knowledge, rather than simply collectors or urine and/or blood samples,” said Sanchez
Costa Rica’s Sports and Recreation Institute, the ICODER, has donated US$190.000 dollars to strengthen the Commission’s work.