The Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory (#50)
Health, fairness and equality for athletes worldwide are a priority to the anti-doping movement and are addressed in a multi-layered approach spanning education, investigation and testing. The National Measurement Institute’s sports drug testing laboratory (ASDTL) is one of a small group of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratories which are dedicated to the analysis of sports doping control tests. The emphasis for anti-doping samples is quality assurance and harmonisation across the network of laboratories which is met by accreditation through the International Standard for Laboratories and a range of technical documents and guidelines. Major efforts in research and development continually evolve procedures used for testing to address the challenges posed by athletes who are doping. A range of techniques are available taking advantage of both direct and indirect detection as well as the potential to review data retrospectively when new substances are identified. Presented will be a general overview of the anti-doping process from sample collection to final findings as well as a look at some of the latest testing methodologies.