KUALA LUMPUR: In a bid to avoid any positive tests at the Indonesia Asian Games in August, all Malaysian athletes will undergo compulsory drug testing prior to the competition — and that includes the horses too.
Asian Games chef-de-mission Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi said details of the screening exercise with National Anti-Doping Agency (Adamas) director Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz will be finalised on Thursday.
"We have informed the National Sports Associations (NSA) that all athletes have to undergo a medical check-up and also an anti-doping test prior to the games," said Azim, after meeting equestrian, rugby and kabaddi athletes bound for the Asian Games on Wednesday.
"The samples, either urine or blood, will be collected when the athletes do their medical check-up at the National Sports Institute (NSI). For athletes who are training outside of the country, they will undergo testing with our affiliates overseas.
"The tests will also be conducted on our horses competing in the equestrian event. We had only just discussed this as the cost for testing the horses is higher than for humans.
"All the samples will be collected earlier this time as the goal is to receive all results before the Games begin. This is to ensure we have zero tolerance when it comes to doping.
"I will be discussing our strategy which includes how many samples will be collected, methods for overseas testing and also costs with Dr Ramlan tomorrow."
The decision to test all athletes is not a surprise considering the number of high profile doping cases in Malaysian sports in recent seasons.
Previously, only athletes competing in high-risk sports such as weightlifting were fully tested while athletes in other sports were tested at random. This was due to the prohibitive costs involved to conduct such tests.
Kabaddi and rugby will both be sending 15 athletes and officials each, all competing under category B. Equestrian will also feature 15 players and officials — eight under category A and seven in category B.