Two Uzbekistan weightlifters tested positive for banned substances and were disqualified from the Asian Games, officials said yesterday, a day after announcing the games' first doping case in the same sport.
Elmira Ramileva, who placed fifth in the women's 69kg division, tested positive to the anabolic steroid stanozolol in a test taken last Monday.
Alexander Urinov, who was seventh in the men's 105kg class, returned positive for cannabis in a Dec. 3 sample.
Both athletes admitted to taking the substances and waived their right to a test on their B samples, Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director-general Husain Al Musallam said.
"All the medalists in these two events were tested and no [other] positive case has been reported," Al Musallam said.
He announced on Saturday that Than Kyi Kyi, a female weightlifter from Myanmar, had tested positive for a banned diuretic.
Than, a former world championships gold medalist who placed fourth in the 48kg division, also waived her right to have a B sample analyzed after her initial urine sample on Dec. 2 showed elevated traces of furosemide. Diuretics can be used to mask steroids.
OCA Medical Committee member Jegathesan Manikavasagam said the stanozolol could have been in Ramileva's system for several weeks to a month, while the cannabis from Urinov's test was probably only a couple of days old.
The most famous doping case involving stanozolol was former 100m world record holder Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his gold medal after testing positive at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Al Musallam said all athletes in Doha could be subject to random and in-competition testing, according to international rules.
All cases have been referred to the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) for further action. Than and Ramileva faced two-year bans from competition.
Manikavasagam said the Uzbekistan weightlifting delegation could face sanctions if it returned further positive doping tests, only depending on the response from the IWF. There were 14 weight divisions conducted over five days of competition. The doping results are back in for the first three days.
Abdulwahab Al Musleh, organizing committee doping control manager, said around 750 of the anticipated 1200 doping tests had been conducted by Saturday night.
Of these, 50 were blood tests and the rest were urine tests.
"We test all the gold medalists, in some sports we test bronze and silver as well, and in other sports we may test second and third and a random selection from the rest," Al Musleh said.
Despite persistent bad publicity, weightlifting continues to be plagued by doping offenses.
India was suspended from international weightlifting competitions, for the second time in less than two years, after four of its weightlifters failed doping tests during, and just ahead of, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March.
India's weightlifting team turned down the opportunity to attend the Asian Games, despite the offer of a dispensation in return for paying a US$50,000 fine.
Balbir Singh Bhatia, Indian weightlifting federation general secretary, last month said the decision to keep the lifters at home was because they were "out of shape."
Two-time Olympic heavyweight champion Hossein Rezazadeh, dubbed the "Iranian Hercules," won weightlifting gold last Wednesday but was only allowed into competition after the Iranian federation paid a fine of US$400,000 to the IWF in lieu of suspension for all of its athletes following adverse findings against some of their teammates.
The World Anti-Doping Agency tested 11 Iranian weightlifters on Sept. 10 in advance of the world championships in the Dominican Republic. Nine tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone.
Eight of the nine weightlifters were suspended for two years and a ninth banned for life -- they did not compete at Doha.
Musallam has rejected suggestions that the latest doping scandal could spell the end of weightlifting as an Asian Games event.
"The weightlifting is on the Asian Games program and the Olympic Games program ... we can't punish all athletes worldwide because of an individual's act," he said on Saturday.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB