Committee awaits medical forms on Thai athletes

JAKARTA (JP): The 19th SEA Games Federation Medical Committee secretary, Dr. Carmen Jahya, said yesterday the committee had yet to receive drug declaration forms for two Thai athletes from the organizers' doping control committee.

"We haven't received them yet," Carmen said.

Nuanwan Kerdsumran, the women's 10-meter air rifle gold medalist, and David Yimsumruay, the decathlon gold medalist, were accused of using salbutamol without mentioning the substance on declaration forms.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules say salbutamol is permitted by inhaler only and must be declared in writing prior to competitions to the relevant medical authorities.

Doping control committee deputy Dr. Dangsina Moeloek said Friday that both athletes filled out the declaration forms and inserted doctors' certificates with them.

Carmen said the doping control and drug declaration forms must be handed over to medical committee chairman Dr. Varin Tansuphasiri, each in a sealed envelope.

"Apparently Dr. Dangsina has held on to all of the forms," she said.

According to Carmen, the medical committee had asked Dangsina to hand over all the forms, but she declined saying that "all the forms belong to the organizers".

Based on IOC rules, the doping control committee must hand over both the doping control and the drug declaration forms to the medical committee. While the urine samples, without names, are handed over to the doping laboratory.

The laboratory will give its analysis of the samples to the medical committee, which will then check the results with records to know who tests positive for banned substances.

"We only have the results with numbers from the lab. We need all the forms from her, but it has been at least three days (since the tests were done)," Carmen said.

As an example, Carmen said Indonesian cyclist Tonton Susanto's urine sample was taken Oct. 12, after winning the 40 km Individual Time Trial, and the results were available Oct. 14.

"But to know who retained the samples, we need Dangsina's records. And we needed three days just to track her down. We only found out Oct. 18 the results of Tonton's sample," she said.

"It's also happened to other athletes, who have been accused of using banned substances," she said.

Tests reportedly showed that Tonton used fencamfamine, which had a stimulant effect. Myanmarese bodybuilder Khin Naung Hwe allegedly used phenylpropanolamine.

Carmen said mistakes in announcing athletes' names would not happen if Dangsina handed over the documents.

She said organizers had the right to announce the names of the athletes who were found to have used banned substances, without waiting for the final results of urine tests.

"We have been late in announcing the names of athletes because of the problem. We have also sent notification letters to Thailand and Myanmar, but not to other countries, before we announce the names," she said.

The federation's executive committee will decide if it will confiscate the athletes' medals. (yan)