Malaysian drug cheats stripped of SEA Games gold

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) –

Photo illustration shows a male athlete taking part in a relay race. Malaysia’s victorious relay team at last November’s Southeast Asian Games has been stripped of its gold medals after a team member failed doping tests, a top official said Tuesday.

Malaysia’s victorious relay team at last November’s Southeast Asian Games has been stripped of its gold medals after a team member failed doping tests, a top official said Tuesday.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar told AFP that the SEA Games Federation over the weekend had also ordered weightlifter Firdaus Razak to return his bronze medal for a similar offence.

Mohammad Yunus Lasaleh, who was part of the 4X400m relay team, had tested positive for the anabolic steroid metandienone, also known as methandienone, at the Games held in Palembang, Indonesia, it was reported previously.

“We take doping very seriously and the MAU (Malaysian Athletic Union) should as well,” Tunku Imran said.

Both athletes face a two-year ban.

In a sworn statement earlier this year, Yunus said MAU deputy president Karim Ibrahim had last September told him to meet with an unidentified Bulgarian who provided pills and injections that he was told contained vitamins, Malaysian press reports had said.

Yunus was told the pills “could help me win gold”, The Star quoted his statement as saying in February.

MAU president Shahidan Kassim has said an investigation will be launched into the allegations against his deputy, Karim who has refused all public comment on the issue.