Taiwan's Olympic team was dealt another serious blow yesterday when a third member of its weightlifting team was barred from competition, further dashing hopes that the island will bring home a gold for the first time in its history.
Yesterday, as hundreds of spectators were converging on Australia's port city of Sydney and the festive spirit of the Games was building, Chen Po-pu (陳柏甫), 23, was being ushered onto a plane and back to Taiwan.
Chang Chao-kuo (張朝國), the head of Taiwan's weightlifting federation, said after hearing of the ban: "I feel so ashamed. All our athletes will now be suspect and this will have a negative impact on the Taiwan team."
PHOTO: REUTERS
Speaking through a press release, Taiwan's Olympic delegation said that the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) had requested that Chen, one of Taiwan's top three male competitors, be banned from competition for two years and barred from participating in the Sydney Olympics.
Chen is the third weightlifter from Taiwan to be barred from participating in the Olympics in a little over a week. On Sept. 5 Chen Jui-lien (陳瑞蓮) and Wu Mei-yi (吳美儀) were also barred from the Games.
All three weightlifters tested positive for muscle building and performance enhancing anabolic steroids.
Chen, who took silver and bronze medals at world junior competitions in 1997 and 1998, was on the reserve list to compete in the 62kg category in Sydney.
At a training session yesterday, a coach with the team said Chen's drug use was baffling since he was not scheduled to compete.
"He had no reason to take any drugs because he wasn't on the formal list of competitors. He was on the reserve list," said the coach, who declined to be identified.
Chen Po-pu first tested positive for steroids in March of this year after he set a new national record for the 63kg category, lifting 130kg in the snatch competition.
Chen said that he was using the drug for treatment of a shoulder injury, which doctors at Tzu Chi hospital in Hualien where he received the treatment have verified.
Chen's father, Chen Chi-jung (陳啟榮), also petitioned against the decision to Taiwan's Weightlifting Association arguing that the IWF standards say that athletes who are being treated for injury can refuse doping tests.
The elder Chen said that the amount of the drug in his son's system may have exceeded international standards, but the drug was not being used illegally.
Chen was barred at that time from competition until an Aug. 18 decision by Taiwan's weightlifting federation overturned a similar ruling against two gold-medal hopefuls, Chen Jui-lien and Wu Mei-yi, allowing them to join Taiwan's Olympic team.
With Chen and Wu allowed to compete, the ban against Chen Po-pu was also lifted on the grounds that the athletes were using the drugs for treatment, not to enhance performance.
However, Chen and Wu had also been found to have performance enhancing drugs that exceeded normal levels in their blood. Chen Jui-lien was using drugs to treat a chronic knee problem. In Wu's case, weightlifting officials have questioned the validity of the testing.
According to IWF regulations, countries who have three athletes found to be using banned performance-enhanced drugs will be fined US$50,000.
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WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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