IPC sorry that Paralympic Games not free of doping
17/9/2008 17:26
The Beijing Paralympic Games not free of doping was a pity, said the
Internatianal Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Philip Craven in Beijing
today.
The IPC reported three doping cases, all from the sport of
powerlifting and another positive case under the national Paralympic committee's
control came to light during Games.
"The winter Games were free of it in
Turino Games completely. So we are not happy that there are still three positive
tests. I don't think that we are going away and laughing at this and saying that
was a pretty good Games in the doping point of view," said Craven.
"Those
three tests are something that we don't want and we will fight to catch the
cheats if they keep on showing on the Games even if it's only the three of
them," he said.
Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt became the first to
fail the doping test at the Games. Facourou Sissoko of Mali and Liudmyla
Osmanova of Ukraine, both powerlifting competitors, were also expelled from the
Paralympics after testing positive for steroids.
Another doping case was from
German wheelchair basketball player Ahmet Coskun who was kicked out of the Games
as traces of finasteride were found in his urine sample taken on August 23 but
it was not an IPC test.
The German National Paralympic Committee announced
the positive result and withdrew the player from the Games.
Craven said all
three doping cases from the Games were found out in out-of-competition tests and
the low number proved that the program was effective in the fight against
doping.
"Each of them is out of competition. To date, we haven't had one
in-competition doping case," he said. "We think that what have been put in place
here with great cooperation with BOCOG has showed that the Paralympic Games are
near enough free of doping."
About 1,100 tests both out-of-competition and
in-competition would be carried out among some 4,000 athletes during the Sept.
6-17 Games.
"We will work even harder on the education. We worked very hard
on the education of our sports for the last four years. I think we can say that
we are having some success but we want more success," Craven said.
Xinhua
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