TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It is unclear whether Indonesia’s opportunity to host a MotoGp event at the Mandalika International Street Circuit in 2022 could be affected by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) non-compliant status towards Indonesia’s national anti-doping organization.

WADA, on October 7, declared the anti-doping organizations (NADOs) of North Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia had failed to comply with the world anti-doping code.

Consequently, the aforementioned countries are not allowed to be awarded the right to host any regional, continental or World Championship events by any Code signatory for a year or until they are reinstated. This decision is feared to affect a number of global sporting championships that are scheduled to be held in Indonesia, among which are the World Superbike (WSBK) and MotoGp races set to be hosted by the Lombok circuit.

The Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Zainudin Amali in the Ministry’s website confirmed the WADA non-compliant notice earlier in September and that the response from Indonesian Anti-Doping Agency (LADI) had not met WADA’s expectations.

Menpora has communicated this problem with LADI and clarified that the insufficient samples LADI sent to WADA was mainly due to the inactive sporting events in 2020 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is what caused the lack of samples sent to the anti-doping lab in Qatar. Meanwhile, in 2021 the samples can be taken from the 20th National Games in Papua. This issue is mainly about sample delivery because we indeed planned to provide samples in 2020,” said the Minister on the Menpora website.

The Minister is optimistic that the issue will be cleared soon and asserts that the LADI and Indonesian government are committed to meet the rules set by WADA. “We also explained the challenges that the country faced,” he added.

The Mandalika circuit is planned to host a World Superbike race in November this year while the MotoGp championship is set to pay a visit in March of 2022.

Read: Mandalika Subject to Health, Safety Protocol Simulation ahead of MotoGP

DICKY KURNIAWAN