13th South Asian Games medal winners Mehboob, Naeem, Samiullah face ban over doping
Three Pakistani athletes Mehboob Ali (400m hurdles), Mohammad Naeem (110m hurdles) and bronze medallist Samiullah (100m) face lengthy ban as their B samples have also been positive.
The 2010 doping scandal in which a number of national athletes tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs had not yet been completely erased from the mind when the other day the country’s athletics was hit by another massive doping scandal as three of our medal winners at the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal tested positive for using steroids.
Three Pakistani athletes face lengthy ban as Qatar and Nepal Olympic committees confirmed that their B samples have also been positive, which means performance-enhancing drugs were used knowingly or unknowingly.
Gold medal winners Olympian Mehboob Ali (400m hurdles), Hurdler Mohammad Naeem (110m hurdles) and bronze medallist Sprinter Samiullah (100m) tested positive at the 13th South Asian Games for performing-enhancing drugs last month.
The athletes contested the result as Mehboob and Naeem had requested to test their B samples as they denied any wrong-doing while Sami has said that he used medicine for an injury which he claimed he did not know contained prohibited compounds.
The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) decided to go for testing of B samples after submitting around $1,800 with a WADA-recognised laboratory in Qatar as tests cost. After three weeks of wait, the result was dispatched on Sunday, confirming the earlier results.
As a result, Pakistan will lose six athletics medals. Pakistan athletics contingent at the Games won 13 medals: five gold, two silver and six bronze. The performance-enhancing drug scandal will deprive Pakistan of two gold and four bronze medals. All the three athletes were part of the relay teams that won bronze. However, technically all medals won before the tests conducted on athletes will stay with athletes.
The new standing on the table will see Pakistan winning seven medals in aggregate while minnows Nepal have eight. Sri Lanka bagged 15 gold medals and India 12. Pakistan’s gold medal tally will be reduced to three.
