Three people have been appointed to try to ensure that sportspeople in the Isle of Man steer clear from performance-enhancing drugs.

During 2016 and 2017 government agency Isle of Man Sport arranged several visits from a UK anti-doping educator, running 14 sessions attended by 170 athletes and officials from the island’s sporting community.

Now Isle of Man Sport has identified potential candidates who could be trained to give future courses on anti-doping.

Juan Kinley, Leonie Cooil, and Paul Cubbon all recently completed training with UK Anti-Doping (UKAD), making them qualified to deliver anti-doping sessions.

They delivered a number of workshops since completing their training and over the past few months some of the island’s sporting associations and members of the Isle of Man’s Commonwealth Games team have had from ’Clean Sport 1’ sessions - the entry level education - covering a variety of elements surrounding anti-doping from a sporting perspective.

The slogan Isle of Man is promoting as part of its initiative is ’100% ME. It is also used by UK Anti-Doping to emphasise that sportspeople should be able to say ’my performance is 100% me, there is no secret to my success - just hard work, determination and talent’.

The chairman of Isle of Man Sport, Gary Corkhill, said: ’Isle of Man Sport is dedicated to doing everything it can to ensure that everyone connected with sport on our island has the knowledge and knowhow when it comes to anti-doping.

’The Isle of Man’s sporting family is highly respected on the national and world stage. Were any Manx athlete or official to fail a drug test, having been provided with so many opportunities to attend a workshop, it would be damaging not only to an individual, but to the island’s sporting reputation as a whole.’

All sports in the Isle of Man will be offered the opportunity to use the expertise of the on-island anti-doping educators, to either deliver a training session or for advice on where they can obtain further information on anti-doping.

There will be no costs to governing bodies in accessing the education, as Isle of Man Sport is offering free access to the educators and the Isle of Man Sport Institute for each session, providing 15 or more people attend.

More information is available by contacting Paul Callow on [email protected] or 688555.

Up to one million people in the UK are taking anabolic steroids and other image- and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) to change the way they look, public health experts and doctors said earlier this year.

This ranges from teenagers seeking the perfect physique to elderly men hoping to hang on to youthful looks.