Exclusive | ONE Championship has new anti-doping partner, will drug test athletes at all events
- Martial arts promotion will start testing athletes at next weekend’s double header of events in Singapore, including Amazon Prime Video debut
- All athletes will be informed of the new policy via an internal memo, a copy of which the Post has seen
ONE Championship has a new anti-doping partner that will drug test all of its athletes, starting with next weekend’s double header of events at Singapore Indoor Stadium, a source has told the Post.
The martial arts promotion gets back to action in its home city with ONE 160 on the evening of August 26, before returning the following morning for its first event on Amazon Prime Video, which will be broadcast in prime time in the US the night before.
The arrangement will remain in place for all future events, the source said, with all athletes to be informed of the new policy via an internal memo, a copy of which the Post has seen.
ONE’s new drug testing partner, International Doping Tests & Management – a subsidiary of Drug Free Sport International – will “independently handle all testing for illegal substances”, according to the memo.
ONE has not publicly drug-tested its athletes before in its 11-year history, but reportedly planned to introduce World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) standard testing in 2019.
“It is true that we began doing WADA testing actually last year,” ONE chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodong told a press conference in Manila in January 2019.