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)