Turkmen doping case puts wrestling under pressure

A WRESTLER from Turkmenistan became the first doping case at the Asian Games and has been disqualified, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said, days after it threatened to expel the worst-offending sports from future tournaments.

Rustem Nazarov tested positive for the banned substance furosemide, a masking agent, in a pre-tournament urine test last week, the OCA said.

Nazarov “has been disqualified from the 18th Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games 2018 ... and his results during the competition held on the 19th August annulled”, said a statement yesterday.

The athlete, 24, had competed in the men’s 57kg freestyle event and was defeated in his first match.

His compatriot Shyhazberdi Ovelekov won bronze in the men’s Greco-Roman 87kg category on Wednesday.

On Monday, the OCA’s president said that sports with the highest number of doping cases in recent Games could face punishment, including expulsion.

“We would like to see which sport in the past three Games had the highest number (of doping cases),” Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah said in Jakarta.

“When we know this sport we will put it under pressure. It will not be one of our sports anymore, or it will have less medals.”

A count of re-analysed samples from Beijing 2008 and London 2012, carried out last year by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), found wrestling had the third-highest number of positive cases, after weightlifting and athletics.