The meeting at the Dead Sea in Jordan was attended by Board members and trainees from the WARADO region including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan.

WARADO chairman Professor Kamal Al Hadidi joined secretary general of the Jordan Olympic Committee Lana Aljaghbeer to welcome guests to the event, which saw a special invitation extended to chairman of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Yemen RADO, Dr Sultan Albusaidi.

Albusaidi's presence was aimed at building a strong collaboration between the two Regional Anti-Doping Organisations, and it was agreed to build upon this collaboration by planning for further mutual conferences and events in the fight against doping.

During the meeting, Kazuhiro Hayashi from WADA's Asia/Oceania regional office provided an update about WADA activities in the continent, while general manager of the Anti-Doping Lab in Qatar, Dr Muhammad Alsayrafi, spoke to delegates about the lab's facilities and equipment, and the assistance the lab will be offering to the regional countries.

Member countries also provided an update on their own anti-doping activities and programmes and particular attention was paid to the implementation of the revised World Anti-Doping Code, which is due to come into effect on January 1, 2015.

The revised World Anti-Doping Code was agreed following a lengthy consultation process lasting nearly two years ©AFP/Getty Images



Tom May from WADA presented and discussed the differences between the 2009 and 2015 code and emphasised the importance for all the countries to revise their codes to become compliant.

In addition, acting manager of the anti-doping department of the Olympic Council of Asia, Nadia Alshamali, briefed those present about anti-doping activities and major Games on the continent.

The revised WADA Code will see more stringent sanctions imposed for doping violations, including a doubling of bans for athletes who fail tests for the first time from two to four years and greater sanctions for accomplices such as coaches and team-mates.

The changes have been implemented following an 18-month consultation process and were confirmed at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg last November.

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