Handball World Cup | Some people spend several hours filling a glass with urine. This can be the solution:
The new doping test method can be used in Norwegian sports already in the new year.
CASTELLÓN (Nettavisen): Dried Blood Spot is a test method for doping which has been under development for the last few years.
Well, a little stab in the shoulder, with a subsequent blood test, should be enough to cover the needs to get a legal answer.
– We have already started testing Dried Blood Spot at fitness centers around the country, and have a plan to take it into the sport in the new year, says communications manager in Anti-Doping Norway Halvor H. Byfuglien to Nettavisen.
The news is hailed in the Norwegian handball camp, which welcomes the test as soon as possible.
– Sometimes it can be a nightmare to deliver a urine sample, and can take up to several hours, Camilla Herrem tells Nettavisen.
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An additional test
The online newspaper visited Anti-Doping Norway, in the summer of 2020, to get a greater insight into which trials. Now it must enter the phase of both national and international sports.
– The test is first and foremost a supplementary doping test, and will, in the first instance, not be a direct substitute for the urine sample. On the other hand, it will be an aid where you can test several at the same time, which will save both time and money, says Byfuglien.
– When will you start using this in Norway?
– WADA has spent a lot of resources on developing the method, so we have good results on it works. The plan is that we will start with the use of DBS in Norwegian sports in the new year, and are waiting to have equipment to start more, he concludes.
Dried blood stain
What is it?
DBS (Dried Blood Spot) is a new doping test method. A form of sampling – and storage of biological material where a small amount of blood is applied and absorbent material.
How?
Through the equipment that ADNO uses, the blood sample is taken by microneedles puncturing the skin on the upper arm. The blood droplets are then automatically fed to the absorbent material. This material can then be easily transported to a laboratory for analysis. The upper arm equipment (pictured) is only a variant of DBS. There are also other methods for reading a DBS sample, for example through a small plug in the finger, where blood pressure is then applied and filter paper.
Why?
There are many benefits to Dried Blood Spot testing. For practitioners, the method of achieving is painless, it is simple to perform and does not require specialist expertise as a blood sampler or bioengineer. Therefore, for example, a training center can perform the test itself, while the doping controller from Anti-Doping Norway is present via screen. It is also much less invasive compared to a urine test and ordinary blood test. The sample is easy to carry and store, and the analysis result provides a better snapshot of which substances the practitioner has recently ingested compared to urine samples.
Source: Anti-Doping Norway
In Denmark, they have already started using the test which has been named “blood dot” during sports events, and Jakob Mørkeberg in Anti-Doping Denmark thinks it will be groundbreaking.
– The answers to a DBS test you get in a few minutes and will make it more efficient at the same time, he says and puts it in the long run can be a substitute for urine samples that the practitioners are now used to, he says to Danish TV 2.
Anti-Doping Denmark has also written a study in which 96% of athletes have been carried out as a positive method to the BS method.
How to perform:
– Had been “badger” much better
The Norwegian handball girls welcome the new test with open arms. Camilla Herrem tells about several incidents where you have been left on doping control for a long time.
– Is that true? It had been so “bad” much better. I have sat for so many hours on doping tests, where you have just gone on a break or after a match, and think “father, this is not possible”, says Herrem to Nettavisen.
And continues:
– Exactly what is actually incredibly difficult, because it is usually not something you can just get done on command. You are also forced to deliver enough as well, so it has been a nightmare at times. It would therefore have been extremely good with a new system
– Have you had any «horror experiences» yourself?
– Not necessarily horror experiences, but sometimes you manage a little, but not enough. It’s almost the worst, because then you just have to sit in the eerie room there and drink large amounts of water. Before you finally make it, but end up going for the rest of the evening too, the 35-year-old laughs.
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National team captain Stine Bredal Oftedal throws herself on, and believes it will save the athletes from tricky situations.
– I salute that solution there. Because it is often the case that you have sweated out a lot of fluid during a fight, and are then “forced” to have to deliver a quantity of urine. It is not always easy, to put it mildly, then it becomes a blood test, it is very good, she tells Nettavisen.
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– The coolest thing is the times you have won an important match, want to be with the team and celebrate afterwards, but then you are sitting for hour after hour alone in a doping room. First and foremost, it is the most boring part of the whole process.
Norway has had a brilliant opening to the championship, with major victories over Kazakhstan and Iran respectively.
On Tuesday, it faces the biggest challenges so far, as Romania is facing the opposite half of the field in Castellón.