JADCO rewards Guy’s Hill for anti-doping interest
Published:Thursday | February 2, 2023 | 1:20 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
NESTLED IN the cool hills of St Catherine, Guy’s Hill High School, for the third time in a row, were the most impressive participants in a series of junior athletes’ anti-doping education workshops.
For their diligence, the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) rewarded the school with five desktop computers
Principal of Guy’s Hill, Cecil Donald, said that while the desktops boost the morale of the students, the importance of the workshops in the way of promoting Integrity and discipline was more important.
“We are very satisfied at the Guy’s Hill High School to be getting this award for the third straight time. This certainly will boost our computer complement at the school, and not only that, but the mere fact that the students were able to participate in the junior anti-doping workshop is a big plus for us. Our students are getting first-hand information on what integrity and discipline means in sports. The students are excited about sports even if they aren’t competing at the national level,” said Donald.
Alando Terelonge, state minister in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, believes the workshops, hosted annually, are not only beneficial to the participating schools, but also prove influential countrywide.
“Anti-doping education is really important, so as minister, it’s always important that we are here to support our state agency, JADCO. JADCO has the task of educating our student athletes because how they perform now in terms of maintaining clean sports and handling the rules of fairplay, it not only affects them, but affects Jamaica.
“What we continue to do is that every year, we have these workshops, and these are done to educate about JADCO and the anti-doping rules in sports. Last week, the president of the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) was here, and this solidifies Jamaica’s position, not just as a global powerhouse, but as the regional leader of anti-doping in sports,” said Terrelonge.
Executive director at JADCO, June Spence Jarrett, said the initiative has blossomed as with every passing year, the attendance and participation have grown.
“Each year that we have our workshop, it gets bigger and better. The children are eager to learn about anti-doping education, and we believe it shouldn’t start at the high school level, so we are now moving into the primary schools to do that, and I’m very excited. This is the first workshop in region one, which is comprised of Kingston, St Andrew, St Catherine, St Thomas, and Portland, and then we will be moving to regions two, three, and four to make presentations to the schools who have participated in the anti-doping workshops,” said Jarrett.