MSN await probe by weightlifting body
KUALA LUMPUR: The National Sports Council (MSN) is currently awaiting the findings of an internal investigation by the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation ( PABM) Investigation Committee before confirming its suspension of the weightlifting programme under MSN.
MSN director- general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said the council would make a decision based on the results of the PABM investigation, whether it was appropriate or not for MSN to suspend the weightli fting programme.
“We are also conducting urine tests on athletes who are in the MSN programme. The PABM has investigated all three athletes who failed doping tests earlier and will mete out punishments while MSN will only be making a decision on the programme based on the results of the urine tests.
“We are afraid that there could still be some weightlifting athletes who are making the same mistakes. MSN is also seeking a clearer picture about the attitude and practice of (taking) supplements among athletes who acquired them from the Internet,” he said when explaining on the status of the sport.
Weightlifting once again was mired in the doping issue after three back-up athletes, Muhamad Hakimie Haikal Nordin, Muhamad Zaidi Mohd Nordin and Ronny Jesos failed doping tests carried out by the World Weightlifting Federation ( IWF).
Ahmad Shapawi said MSN had now requested all three athletes involved to leave MSN and that their fate depended on the PABM probe. Urine tests were conducted on them randomly by the IWF on March 28 and they were confirmed positive for the drug Stanozolol, a banned substance under the anabolic steroids group.
Before that , Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mohamad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad was also conf irmed positive for the same type of drug in a doping test earlier this month.
The media previously reported that the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Muhammad Aznil Bidin had revealed that the forbidden substance was already in the national squad training camp since the beginning of this year when it was acquired online. — Bernama