|
|
Saturday, October 21
Six lifters have tested positive
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Two more powerlifters have failed drug
tests at the Sydney Paralympics, joining four others who already
were caught and banned from competition for four years.
These are the first failed drug tests of Paralympians since
1992.
At a press conference about the initial positive cases,
International Paralympic Committee president Dr. Robert Steadward
said there would be new doping hearings Sunday.
The two athletes failed out-of-competition tests. Steadward
would not reveal their nations or which banned substances were
involved. There were 129 out-of-competition tests during the week
between the opening of the Paralympic Village opened and the Oct.
18 opening ceremony.
The four banned athletes were identified as Radko Radev of
Bulgaria, Aurel Berbec of Romania, Ali Mahmoudkikordkheili of Iran
and Marina Diakonova of Russia.
The IPC said Saturday the four tested positive for banned
substances in Sydney before the Paralympics, an event featuring
more than 4,000 disabled athletes from 125 nations.
All four withdrew from competition after failing initial tests.
But, under IPC rules, sanctions could not be imposed until analysis
of backup samples confirmed the positive result.
The IPC held hearings with the athletes before releasing the
statement.
The four-year suspensions will extend beyond the 2004
Paralympics. Two lifters tested positive for anabolic steroids,
Berbec for Stanozolol and Mahmoudkikordkheili for Methandienone,
while Diakonova and Radev returned positive samples for banned
diuretics.
Habib Banai, mission chief of the 41-member Iranian team, said
Mahmoudikordkheili will be further penalized by the country's
sports officials.
"We are very upset. We are completely against doping and do not
encourage at all the doping of any Iranian athletes," Banai said
through a translator. "We were completely unaware of this. This
person has done this kind of thing in private."
Russian officials at the powerlifting venue declined to comment
immediately. Bulgarian and Romanian officials could not be
contacted.
Powerlifting is a version of weightlifting in which athletes lie
on a bench and press weights up with their arms.
Weightlifting produced four of the 11 positive drug cases during
the Sydney Olympics. Three Bulgarians and an Armenian were stripped
of weightlifting medals during the Sydney Games.
|  | |
|
