Frequency and type of adverse analytical findings in athletics: Differences among disciplines

IMPACTS OF AEROBIC EXERCISE ON THE PHYSICAL FITNESS OF SHOT PUT ATHLETES

ABSTRACT Introduction: Shot put is a competitive sport that combines speed, strength, and explosiveness. Training the skill with aerobic exercise has attracted the attention of many coaches and scholars on competitive sports training. Shot put is a fast-powered activity, and its shooting speed is the determining factor for sports performance. It is believed that aerobic exercise can improve the ability of its practitioners. Objective: To analyze the impacts of aerobic exercise on the physical fitness of shot put athletes. Methods: 18 shot put athletes were randomly selected as volunteers for research that consisted of a random division between experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a protocol involving aerobic training, while the control group received regular training before, during, and after the experiment. The maximal strength and explosive power of the two groups of athletes were tested before and after the intervention, and mathematical-statistical methods were used to process the collected data. Results: The maximum strength index of both groups was improved; however, the improvement in the experimental group was statistically relevant(P<0.05). The values of the pressure index, power, and balance of the athletes from the experimental group were statistically altered to those before the experiment (P<0.01). Conclusion: The implementation of aerobic exercise in the routine of shot put athletes can effectively improve the performance in the sport and the special abilities of its practitioners. The training method analyzed was also shown to improve specific performance in the shot put athletes. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

Annual banned-substance review: Analytical approaches in human sports drug testing 2020/2021

Most core areas of anti-doping research exploit and rely on analytical chemistry, applied to studies aiming at further improving the test methods' analytical sensitivity, the assays' comprehensiveness, the interpretation of metabolic profiles and patterns, but also at facilitating the differentiation of natural/endogenous substances from structurally identical but synthetically derived compounds and comprehending the athlete's exposome. Further, a continuously growing number of advantages of complementary matrices such as dried blood spots have been identified and transferred from research to sports drug testing routine applications, with an overall gain of valuable additions to the anti-doping field. In this edition of the annual banned-substance review, literature on recent developments in anti-doping published between October 2020 and September 2021 is summarized and discussed, particularly focusing on human doping controls and potential applications of new testing strategies to substances and methods of doping specified in the World Anti-Doping Agency's 2021 Prohibited List.

Study of frequency and type of adverse analytical findings in the different disciplines of aquatics

We aimed to analyze the number and distribution of doping control tests in which a banned substance was reported (i.e., adverse analytical finding) in aquatics. The analysis was performed by using the data provided by the WADA Testing Figure Reports from 2015 to 2019. A total of 79,956 doping control tests were analyzed. Sprint swimming, middle-distance swimming and water polo were the disciplines with the highest number of doping control tests. However, there were no differences in the frequency of adverse findings among disciplines (overall, ∼0.56%, from 0.13 in artistic swimming to 0.76% in sprint swimming). Sprinters and long-distance swimmers presented a higher frequency of beta-2-agonists than the remaining aquatic disciplines (p < 0.05). These results indicate that the type of prohibited substances employed is strongly influenced by the intrinsic characteristics of each aquatic discipline.