The Sri Lanka Amateur Athletics Association in conjunction with the Medical Unit of the Ministry Sports will conduct a seminar on doping in athletics and other related matters from 26th to 28th of this month in Colombo.

The secretary of the AASL Prema Pinnawela speaking to The Sunday Times said “It is time that we started having these awareness programmes as this menace is gradually taking root. The programme will be conducted by Dr. M. Jegatheesan from Malaysia who is the vice president of the Malaysian NOC and a member of the IAAF anti doping unit.” Dr. Jegatheesan was known as the fastest man in Asia in the 1950’s – taking part in the 100 and the 200 metre events.

For the seminar the AASL has ear marked to invite the participation of the National Athletic Pool and their coaches and the National Junior Pool and their coaches.

Besides this the AASL is also planning to do a translation of the IAAF anti-doping laws into Sinhala. In this regard Pinnawela said “Eighty per cent of the local athletes are not conversant in English and the sooner we do it the, better it would be”.

The AASL have sought monetary assistance of the IAAF with regard to the conducting of doping tests on local athletes. Once that is done they may be subject to out of season random checks.