Jakarta defends its drug cheats at National Games
Jakarta defends its drug cheats at National Games
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta's sports governing body yesterday
defended its three athletes who failed dope tests at the 14th
National Games, arguing that none of them was aware they were
taking a banned substance.
The organization's chairman, Kusnan Ismukanto, told a press
conference that investigators had found the athletes innocent of
any wrong-doing and hence, their punishment should be kept to a
minimum.
"We hope that their respective sports organizations will
eventually declare them 'not guilty' because none of them took
the drugs intentionally," Ismukanto said.
The three athletes in question are men's tennis player Benny
Wijaya, women's shot Titik Sumarni and men's judoka Dwi Sihmanto.
Benny tested positive for heptaminol acefyllinate, Titik for
ephedrine and Dwi for lassig. The substances are all banned
stimulants.
Ismukanto supported his argument with cases of athletes who
have beaten a ban in a story titled "Why Athletes Still Say Yes
to Drugs" in this month's Reader's Digest.
The story features, among other things, Australia's swimmer
Samantha Riley who escaped a ban when her lawyer explained that
her coach had mistakenly given her a prohibited substance.
The story also mentions Finnish swimmer Petteri Lehtinen who
avoided punishment when officials accepted he had forgotten to
declare a banned medicine he was taking for his asthma.
Benny won two gold medals in both the men's team and
individual tennis competition. However his urine sample, which
tested positive for the illegal drug, was taken after he finished
the team competition. Cariamyl, the patent name of the medicine
Benny took, left no trace eight hours after it was ingested.
Ismukanto quoted Benny, the country's former number one, as
saying that the bronchodilator spasmolytic was given by a
physician who has treated his rhinitis since his childhood.
He thought the medicine was safe because Benny's coach Yustejo
Tarik and Benny's patron Martina Widjaja, who escorted Benny to
the doctor, had meticulously warned the doctor not to administer
drugs which contained banned substances.
Hence, Ismukanto said, "We hope that the Indonesian Tennis
Association would withdraw, if it has to, only the men's team
gold medal."
As for Titik, Ismukanto asked, "Was it correct to say that
Titik had taken a performance-enhancing drug? If she really meant
to, why did she take ephedrine, which increases one's heart beat,
an effect which is detrimental to her composure?"
Titik won two gold medals, in the women's team and individual
standard rifle prone. She was not aware that the over-the-counter
cough medicine she took, known locally as OBH, contains
ephedrine.
As for Dwi, it was clear that the male judoka took the
stimulant, on his doctor's advice, in order to reduce his weight,
Ismukanto said. Dwi lost four kilograms after taking the
substance so that he could compete in the men's 60kg category.
(arf)