Presentations on anti-doping controls and the specificity of training for women dominated the working sessions on the penultimate day of the Women in Sports Leadership/Training seminar at the Sokhalay Hotel in Siem Reap yesterday.

In the aftermath of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s shocking revelations regarding Russia, a member of Cambodia’s sports medicine and science commission, Dr Huot Chan Theany, made a plea to participants to fight the scourge with the strict implementation of anti-doping controls.

“Health, consequences and shame are the three most vital factors everyone involved, from athletes to administrators through to coaches, needs to bear in mind when it comes to doping, either intentionally or through inadvertent medicinal use,” said Dr Theany, who is also vice director of the National Pediatric Hospital.

“What goes into your body is your responsibility,’’ said Dr Theany, drawing on the incident involving a Cambodian female soft tennis player who tested positive for a banned substance at the Incheon Asian Games two years ago.

“Our player was unaware of the presence of banned substances in the cough medication she was taking before the games. It was an unintentional mistake, but both she and the country that she represented had to endure the blame and the shame.

“We have to learn from these incidents and enrich our knowledge of anti-doping controls, which form an important part of a sportsperson’s career,” she said while taking the participants through detailed procedures that go with anti-doping measures, beginning with the basics of collecting samples.

In his power-point presentation on the specificity of training for women, NOCC adviser Ken Gadaffi busted several myths over the capacity of women to train like men while advocating the “FITT” principle as the way forward.

“Frequency, intensity, time and type make up the FITT doctrine, and the key to successful training regimen for women is in striking the right balance between them,” Gadaffi told the gathering while showing video clips of several world-class athletes in training.

Gadaffi picked out Rio-bound female wrestler Chov Sotheara, one of the participants, for special mention because of her intense routines. He also praised Sorn Seavmey for training as hard as any male athlete.

“You as future leaders must be proud of the fact that there are four women out of six athletes heading to the Rio Olympics” he said. “The right approach would be to address individual needs, pick specific types of training, concentrate on progressive overloads, give sufficient rest and recovery time and bring in the FITT factor.’’