Athlete blames hair-loss treatment

The Paralympics suffered its second doping scandal in as many days yesterday, with a German wheelchair basketballer kicked out of the event for taking a banned drug contained in hair loss treatment.

A statement from the German National Paralympic Committee said Ahmet Coskun had tested positive for finasteride after a pre-competition urine test on Aug. 23.

The substance is used in a drug against hair loss and is on a list of banned substances, according to the statement.

It said that although finasteride does not enhance performance, it can be used to cover up drugs that do.

“I was thinking about my hair and had no idea that the drug, which is against hair loss, contained a banned substance. I’m very upset. I never intended to do doping,” Coskun said, according to the statement.

German chef de mission Karl Quade expressed regret at the news.

“We take the issue of anti-doping very seriously. We’ve been carrying out an intensive anti-doping campaign for years in cooperation with NADA [the German anti-doping agency],” Quade said in the same statement.

Coskun, 33, who played for Germany in three of its pool matches but not in yesterday’s 73-63 win over Iran, will return home soon, German paralympic chiefs said.

On Tuesday, Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt, 37, tested positive for the steroid methandienone metabolites on Sept. 4, two days before the opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, China sat atop the medals table, boasting 24 golds at the latest count, and once again leapfrogging Britain.

On 20 golds, the British have been boosted by a remarkable 12 track cycling golds, continuing the domination of the sport they showed at the Olympics.

“We’re delighted with the British performances across the sports so far and to be where we are in the medals table at this stage is fantastic,” British chef de mission Phil Lane said .

He admitted it would be difficult to stay with China, who have a far bigger team competing in Beijing, although that had not dampened spirits as the British were well on their way to achieving their goal of 35 to 40 golds.

Later yesterday, Polish teenager Natalia Partyka stormed to Paralympic table tennis gold, just weeks after realizing her dream of playing in the Olympic Games.

Partyka, the first table tennis player to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics, beat China’s Fan Lei 11-8, 11-4, 11-9 in 23 minutes to successfully defend her Athens crown in her class.

She said the level of Paralympics players was much higher now than four years ago.

“In Athens four years ago it was easy. Here I had much better opponents but I concentrated hard and just played my own game. I have done very well,” she said.

“Unfortunately, table tennis is not so famous in Poland. I love to play in China. China is my lucky place,” she said.

During the Olympics the 19-year-old failed to notch up any singles victories but forced world number 10 Tie Yana of Hong Kong into an intense five-set game in the team event.

Partyka helped Poland to two doubles wins during last month’s Games, but it was not enough to see them qualify from the group stage.

She is one of only two Paralympians who also competed at last month’s Olympics, along with South African swimmer Natalie du Toit, who already has two golds out of the five she is aiming for.

Partyka, born with a right arm that ends at the elbow, has proved she can mix it with the top able-bodied players, defeating Singapore’s Li Jia Wei, ranked sixth in the world, at this year’s world team championships in China.