Badminton star Sigit denies doping charge
JAKARTA (JP): A cloud of suspicion hangs over the struggling Indonesian badminton camp following a press report that world men's doubles champion Sigit Budiarto failed a drug test conducted by the National Sports Council.
The doubles specialist, who won the 1997 World Championship with Chandra Wijaya, denied on Tuesday the accusation from an unnamed source at the council that made headlines in a local daily.
"I have always consulted my doctors before taking medicines. You can ask PBSI (the Badminton Association of Indonesia)," he said.
Sigit said he even asked his dentist to make sure that the painkiller he used to soothe a broken tooth did not contain banned substances.
"I've been very careful in this matter since I joined the national elite team in 1995. I don't want to put myself in disrepute," said Sigit, who turns 23 in November.
Media Indonesia quoted the source on Tuesday as saying that traces of banned substances were found in Sigit's A sample.
The source did not reveal the illegal substances, but expressed skepticism over the player's rapid recovery after a long spell of poor form that led him to being dropped from the All England championship and the Swiss Open in March.
Sigit and Chandra won the Singapore Open in August. Sigit was hospitalized for typhoid last month, forcing him out of the Danish Open last week and the Indonesia Open next week.
Sigit said he would leave the handling of the case to the national badminton body. "That's the association's authority to announce whether I'm clean or guilty."
When contacted later on Tuesday, PBSI vice chairman Agus Wirahadikusumah said he would only comment if the allegations were proven true.
No officials at the sports council would comment on the drug allegation, but the training director of the national team for the 13th Asian Games, Mochamad Hindarto, announced on Tuesday that all athletes being groomed for the event would undergo dope tests soon. Sigit is among 17 shuttlers prepared for the Games.
"The sooner we trace illegal drugs, the quicker we can neutralize them before the Asian Games start," he said.
Hindarto also ordered the athletes to avoid taking medicines without consulting their doctors.
Sigit is not the first Indonesian shuttler to be linked to drug abuse.
The International Badminton Federation banned women's singles player Minarti Timur for 18 months in 1991 after she tested positive for the stimulant fencafamin at the Japan Open. PBSI appealed the suspension, saying she took the drug unknowingly. The IBF accepted the appeal and reduced the ban to 12 months.
Minarti returned to the game to form a solid mixed doubles partnership with Tri Kusheryanto. (yan)