KUALA LUMPUR: The Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia (Adamas) is expecting to collect roughly 400 samples for testing before the Sarawak Malaysia Games begins in August.
Adamas director Azura Abidin said the samples will be collected from athletes who are competing in high-risk sports such as weightlifting.
"It was decided during the recent Malaysia Games special technical meeting that a screening test be conducted for athletes competing in weightlifting, just as we did prior to the 2022 edition (held in the Klang Valley)," said Azura today (April 9).
"We will not reveal the actual date of the tests. They will, however, be done before the Malaysia Games.
"We will also conduct a series of awareness talks at some of the main venues, including Kuching.
"We are hoping to achieve 'zero doping' cases for this edition of the games.
"Sarawak is also hoping to be the most successful hosts of the games, not only in terms of organising it but also in terms of athlete performance."
A total of five doping cases occurred during the 2022 edition, all of which involved weightlifters.
The weightlifting competition in 2022 was almost called off as three weightlifters had failed pre-competition testing.
This prompted the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) to withdraw their technical officials from the competition as they feared sanctioning from the International Weightlifting Federation (world body) if any further positive tests were recorded during the tournament.
The National Sports Council (NSC) decided to go ahead with the tournament and supplied their own officials to run the event.