Inside the anti-doping system

Andy Murray calls it "draconian". Rafael Nadal says it makes him "feel like a criminal". To anti-doping agencies around the world it's the most important weapon they have.

This is the "whereabouts" system, and I'm about to join it.

On Wednesday afternoon I was officially added to something called the National Registered Testing Pool, the first non-sportsman ever to be given such access. From now on I have to specify where I'll be for an hour a day, seven days a week, for up to three months in advance.

Why? So I am available for random out-of-competition tests. Why me? Because this is exactly what the 400 or so elite Olympians in Britain have to do, because it is the controversial heart of the fight against doping and because I want to see exactly how easy or onerous it is to stay on the right side of the system.

Christine Ohuruogu fell foul of the whereabouts system when she missed three tests - Photo: Getty

The first step, as for any athlete, is an induction session - sometimes run by their sport's governing body but often by UK Anti-Doping. I am met by Eliot Caton, athlete support officer at UKAD, and handed a red folder. Inside are user guides, log-in details and some very important contact numbers.

Eliot explains the principles: how the anti-doping programme works, the role whereabouts plays and my responsibilities as an elite athlete within it.

This is where it gets interesting. On a computer programme called Adams (Anti-Doping Administration and Management System), I must submit a mountain of information: my residence for every day in that month, whether home address, hotel or friends'; my full training schedule for every day; where I'll be competing - dates, venues, times - and where and when my one-hour slot will be.

The programme itself looks a little like Microsoft Outlook, albeit initially less intuitive and a little more fiddly. There is a clickable daily calendar, contacts section and area for direct messages. I have a unique username and password which means only UKAD and I can access my information.

Eliot's job is to make sure every athlete is comfortable with using Adams. Step by step he shows me how to upload the key details of my diary to the system.

It takes time. For every address I might stay at overnight I have to input full details - not just the name and street, but specific instructions - ring top doorbell, blue door on left, code for front gate etc.

If you spend your entire life in one place it wouldn't take very long. But sportsmen don't. Neither do sports journalists. In the next month I know I'll be in Southampton for the third Test against Sri Lanka, Wimbledon for the tennis, my Mum and Dad's for a weekend away, a stag-do in London and a hotel or two for other work trips. That's a lot of addresses.

Then there are the training venues. I am a long, long way from being an elite athlete, but I do train most days. At the moment that means bike rides, swimming and gym sessions. On each day in the online diary I have to say where I'll be training, at what times, and how I can be found.

Doing that a week in advance is hard. Doing a full month is even harder. Athletes will have a more structured schedule than me, but they still need to be extremely specific. If at, say, Lee Valley High Performance Centre, are they likely to be in the weights room, the indoor track or the outdoor track?

At the moment I'm cycling three times a week. One of those will be intervals in Richmond Park. Easy enough to input, although harder to say where I'll be in the park or on what loop. Another will be a long ride into the Surrey Hills, 80-ish miles spread over four or five hours. Which route am I likely to choose? Where will I be on it?

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It's not quite as severe as it sounds. I won't be penalised if I'm not at those training venues when I say I am, and it won't count as a missed test, although if I'm consistently not where I should be it will trigger suspicions.

The key part is that one hour window. Between 0600 and 2300, seven days a week, I must specify where and when that window will be. I must be at that location for the full hour. If I'm not, and the testers come calling, it'll count as a missed test. Three missed tests in an 18-month period means an anti-doping suspension, just like the one handed out to Christine Ohuruogu in the system's infancy back in 2006.

How hard is it? Murray and Nadal have not been the only sportsmen to complain. Pete Gardner, chief executive of the British Athletes Commission (BAC), claimed some athletes would retire rather than risk a ban through accidentally missing tests.

Last month the European Elite Athletes Association, which represents 25,000 sportsmen and women across the continent, claimed they had hundreds of members ready to say their human rights had been invaded by this imposition on their privacy. Even on Wednesday, British 100m hurdles record holder Tiffany Ofili was Tweeting: "My Adams is soooo confusing. It frustrates me every time!"

First, the philosophy. UKAD - and world governing body Wada - would say it is a small price to pay for keeping cheats out of sport. We need to believe in the performances we see, to trust that out heroes are exactly that. The out-of-competition tests the whereabouts system provides are as good a guarantee as we can currently get. For the sportsmen involved, this is their chance to prove that they are clean.

Now the practicalities. Specifying that hour is not quite as tricky as you might first think. Many sportsmen go for an early hour - say, 0630 to 0730 - knowing they will be at home in bed.

What if your plans change? What if you suddenly go away for a competition, or stay at your partner's house, or have to see the physio for treatment to an injury rather than being at home when you thought?

It shouldn't be a problem. You can now change that specified hour up to 60 seconds before it is due to start, by sending a text message, phoning a dedicated number or by going online and accessing Adams.

Neither do you have to wait till quite that late. At any point you can go into Adams, or use those other numbers, to adjust your hour for any day in the forthcoming three months.

Should you forget to input your details, or struggle to use the system properly, the education officers are on hand 24/7 to help out. They'll even keep an eye on your Adams and send you a message if it looks like you've neglected to put the right information - for example, if you're off to Spain to represent GB in an event and haven't tweaked your schedule to reflect that. Even on Wednesday night I received a text message gently warning me that my own details in Adams were incomplete and needed updating.

How will I get on? Will the system prove a piece of cake or completely unpalatable? Will it become second nature or last-gasp panic? Will I update and input as I should, or lose track and find myself on the brink of a ban?

I'll be tweeting on @tomfordyce and blogging here regularly with updates throughout the weeks ahead. In that time I'll also be speaking to sportsmen and anti-doping officials to find out how they think the system is working, how it might be improved and what challenges, legal or otherwise, lie ahead.

In the meantime I need to get onto Adams. I've got some serious data inputting to do.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2011/06/inside_the_anti-doping_system.html

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