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)