Talha under investigation for doping breach

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan sports received a big jolt ahead of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games as the country’s ace weightlifter Talha Talib is reportedly under serious investigation for using performance-enhancing drugs.

As reported by ‘The News’ in March 18 issue, the International Testing Agency (ITA) in coordination with International Weightlifting Federation (ITF) has conducted surprise raids on the Pakistan weightlifters’ training facilities in Lahore and Gujranwala. Some leading weightlifters went through the testing procedure with ITA taking time to announce the results.

‘The News’ has learnt from a source that the ITA has started investigating Talha Talib further following the suspicious results emerging from the tests.

“Talha requires further investigation as the results conducted on his blood samples were not at all clear. The ITA is in process of further investigating the matter before getting in a position to clarify the reported use of performance enhancing drugs.

Two other weightlifters have been tested positive just recently, a story splashed by ‘The News’ recently.

“Yes, the tests have been conducted by the ITA in coordination with the PWF. As many as seven tests have been conducted by the ITA just recently and more are expected in a few days time,” the official said while talking to ‘The News’ recently.

When asked why the international body had conducted these tests coming all the way from abroad.

“I have no answers in this regard. They have conducted tests on some of our leading weightlifters. We are still waiting for the results. Following these tests, there has been no communication from the ITA and we are still waiting for the results.”

However, ‘The News’ has learnt that two of leading weightlifters have been tested positive for banned substances in recent days. Though ‘The News’ is aware of the names of these weightlifters but their names cannot be made public as the PWF continues to deny having any positive cases in their ranks.

“We have not been told by any agency on the two positive cases so far. No one has shared the results with us and as such we are not in a position to confirm these names. Once we have the results, we would be in a position to declare names.”

All the efforts to contact the PWF officials went fruitless as no one was ready to attend the call.

Another source related to such activities said that the ITA is seriously investigating Talha for breach of doping rules.

“Yes, the news reaching here suggests that something is brewing up as far as Talha’s reported involvement in doping is concerned. Talha is under investigation. It is the federation that would be in a better position to share other information with you.”

Despite repeated efforts, Talha was not available for his comments. Nobody from the federation was ready to attend the call or reply to the several messages sent to them.

Once Talha or federation officials read these messages their reply will be shared with the readers.