YOUNG TAEKWONDO ARTISTS EMPOWERED

MBABANE – My game is fair play.

This adage rings true for Eswatini Taekwondo coach Wandile Maziya, who said children should be taught earlier about doping and how it can end any artist’s career. Maziya revealed this in last Friday’s training session at Mbabane King Sejong Institute. Doping refers to the use of banned substances in competitive sports such as an anabolic steroid or erythropoietin. Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is another term used to refer to drugs used by athletes to improve their performance. The taekwondo mentor revealed that they were having their normal training session after he decided to teach the young generation about doping.

“One of the reasons I saw this as important was that I wanted them to know from an early stage that they must not take any substance to boost their performance, because it is illegal and not good for their health. Young children must know that for them to perform well they must just train hard. Most athletes are caught for doping and in most cases you find that they are not aware of it, which is why we decided to teach them to avoid that. We can’t run away from the fact that this generation is involved in drugs, which is why it was needed that they be taught,” Maziya said. It is worth mentioning that, Yalda Valinejad of Iran, who won a gold medal in taekwondo at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, was given a two-year ban due to an anti-doping violation. According to Iranian publication Tehran Times, Valinejad returned an adverse analytical finding in her sample for the prohibited substance furosemide.

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Furosemide is a loop diuretic medication used to treat fluid build-up due to ailments such as heart failure, liver scarring or kidney disease. It is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances, as it can be used by athletes as a masking agent for performance-enhancing drugs, as well as rapidly getting rid of water for weight loss. This ban from June 22, 2021, is set to run until June 21, 2023. The 3rd Dan black belt coach who was still competing, further said he would also ask every instructor and coach in the country to teach the younger generation about doping.

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