KONI identifies Games drug users

KONI identifies Games drug users

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) disclosed
yesterday the names of the six athletes who failed their dope
tests at the 14th National Games here last month and stripped the
medal winners of their prizes.

Chairman of the council Wismoyo Arismunandar told a press
conference that three of the guilty athletes came from shooting,
a sport which requires little muscular effort. Three of the drug
abusers were members of the host Jakarta team.

The shooting competitors in question are First Lt. (Army)
Titiek Sumarni, Jakarta's women's small bore prone gold medalist,
Yogyakarta's female competitor Inca Ferry and Irian Jaya marksman
Siswanto.

The other guilty athletes are Jakarta's Dwi Sihmanto, the 60kg
division judo bronze medalist, his teammate Benny Wijaya, winner
of two tennis golds, and a member of East Java's women's hockey
team Fatimous Munaidah.

However, Wismoyo insisted on keeping the substances contained
in the athletes' urine samples secret. "We don't think it is
necessary to announce the banned substances. The athletes just
consumed stimulant, which are not very dangerous.

"I'm not too disappointed with the findings because they took
the drugs unintentionally and most of them had limited knowledge
about doping," he said.

Wismoyo said that the athletes could not escape from
punishment. "We have to obey the rules," he said.

Saying that the doping cases were comparatively minor, the
council asked each sporting organization to take minimum punitive
measures against the guilty athletes.

Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said over the weekend that
he would withdraw bonuses from the province's drug cheats. It
means that Benny, a controversial player for refusing to play in
the Davis Cup last year, will have to return his Rp 24 million
(US$10,170) bounty.

A total of 1,126 samples were examined in this year's Games.
In the previous Games three years ago, five of the 474 athletes
tested were found to have used steroids. They were a female
swimmer, three male cyclists and one female cyclist.

Doctors

Wismoyo said that none of the six athletes appealed for a
retest. He blamed them for carelessness rather than deliberately
trying to improve their performances.

"They should have consulted their doctors first before taking
the drugs. We have distributed guidelines on drugs to all the
contingents' doctors," he said.

Wismoyo said that some of the guilty athletes had followed
procedures, but unfortunately the doctors had mistakenly given
them the banned drugs.

"In these cases, we'll talk to the doctors," Wismoyo said.

Chairman of the antidoping commission Imam Sujudi told
reporters afterward that he will consult the Indonesian Doctor
Association about these cases.

He declined to identify the doctors involved in the doping
case and also indicated that some coaches were also responsible
for the drug abuse.

"It's probably our own mistake that many coaches and doctors
are not well enough informed about doping," Imam said.

He complained that many drugs, which contain banned
substances, are being sold freely over the counter nowadays.

"We hope to tackle this matter in cooperation with drugs
factories by including labels on packets stating that certain
medicines contain or are free from banned substances," said Imam.
(yan)