Tennis: Kiwi anti-doping boss criticises monitoring system

The system that caught ASB Classic-bound Belgian Yanina Wickmayer has been criticised by the boss of Drug Free Sport New Zealand.

Chief executive Graeme Steel said the Athlete Whereabouts system had been a big focus of the Association of National Anti-Doping Organisations two-day summit hosted in Auckland this week.

Under the system, athletes must nominate an hour a day when they can be tested for all 365 days of the year.

"My sense is that most organisations are finding that there is a significant degree of athlete resistance or discontent," Steel said.

"At the moment it may be applied too broadly and putting stress on athletes who have shown no sign of doping and aren't in high-risk groups."

Wickmayer, the world No 16 and one of the marquee signings for the ASB Classic until she was handed a one-year ban from tennis for three times failing to report her whereabouts for testing, lashed out at the system yesterday.

"They should inform us better on how this system works. I am being punished for something that was not in my hands, that I had no control over."

The system has been heavily criticised by athletes from a range of sports where training and playing plans can change by the day.

It's not just the athletes feeling the system is unwieldy.

"It's a huge administrative task for us," Steel said. "It's not just a matter of setting up the programme. You've almost got to be one-on-one with the athletes because the consequences of them getting it wrong are so big."

But Steel said it was critical the drug testing agencies knew the whereabouts of the athletes, citing the case of marathoner Liza Hunter-Galvan, banned for two years for taking EPO.

"We probably would not have caught her on that day, at that time, without the Whereabouts information. So it's helpful for athletes like that who are not part of a team.

"For the All Blacks and the cricketers, for 300 days a year I can pick up the paper and I'll know where they're going to be. Why do they need to go through all this rigmarole?"