BAJAN PARADE. Members of the Barbados team waving their flags proudly as they paraded into the Melbourne Cricket Ground stadium yesterday during a two-and-a-half hour, multi-million-dollar production that ushered the 18th Commonwealth Games into Australia's second largest city. Barbados has a contingent of nearly 100 competitors and officials, and will be hoping over the two weeks to pick up medals in boxing, women's hockey, netball, men's basketball, swimming, table tennis, shooting, badminton and weightlifting. (AP)

PRINCESS MARGARETÕs javelin sensation Ramon Burgess put his name in the record books at the Barbados Secondary Schools Athletic Championships at the National Stadium yesterday. Competing in the Under-17 division, the 15-year-old threw the javelin an incredible 63.34 metres, well past the halfway line of the football field.

'Clean' Bajans

Date March 01, 2006 by Barry Alleyne Compliments of the Nation News

EVERY BARBADIAN ATHLETE drug tested prior to this month's Commonwealth Games in Australia passed with flying colours.

This was revealed Monday night by Dr Adrian Lorde, head of this country's medical team that will be accompanying more than 90 athletes to the Games, which run in Melbourne from March 15 to 26.

At the team's final technical meeting at the Garfield Sobers Complex, Dr Lorde noted that each athlete who had qualified for the Games and had undergone out-of-competition testing, had returned negative results for the presence of banned substances.

Very positive

"This is a very positive thing for the athletic family of Barbados, Lorde told the DAILY NATION Monday night. "The Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) has made a concerted effort to increase the way we educate these athletes about drugs, and this is definitely a good sign.

Dr Lorde noted that athletes from all disciplines, with the exception of netball, were tested randomly, as part of the BOA's special pre-Games testing programme.

He said that each test was a surprise one, unannounced to the athletes involved.

And more may be on the horizon before the competition starts in Melbounre on March 16.

"This remains an on-going process even before the Games start, because each athlete on the Barbados team can still be tested before the start of individual or team competition, either by officials of the BOA, or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), of which Dr Lorde is the representative for the Caribbean region.

Ironically, one of those athletes who did pass a pre-Games test, is world-rated cyclist Barry Forde, who was pulled from the squad over the weekend, because of an on-going investigation involving a positive test for high levels of testosterone at a meet in Genoble, France, last year.

President of the Barbados Cycling Union, Keith Yearwood, said yesterday that Forde had actually passed three tests since the BCU investigation into his "positive test" had started.

Forde, a world championships silver medallist in the Keirin last year in California, was expected to be Barbados' biggest medal hope in the absence of track and field stars Obadele Thompson and Andrea Blackett.

Barbados will be represented in basketball, badminton, boxing, hockey, netball, shooting, swimming, table-tennis and weightlifting; and for the first time, not track and field.

* barryalleyne@ nationnews.com

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