Six Pakistani weightlifters suspended over doping

ISLAMABAD: Six Pakistani weightlifters have been suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) — two for using banned substances and four for refusing to give samples of their blood to international anti-doping officials.

The IWF said that Talha Talib and Abubakar Ghani had tested positive for using a banned substance. Sharjeel Butt, Ghulam Mustafa, Abdur Rehman and Farhan Amjad have also been suspended as they refused to submit the samples to the ITA in Pakistan on November 10, 2021. IWF has called an online meeting with the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) on May 1 to determine their fate.

All the six athletes have been informed of the cases and have been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matters. The athletes cannot participate in any capacity in any competition or any other activity either at the international or national level organised by any signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code.

“The prosecution of the cases is also being handled entirely by the ITA. Given that the cases are underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceedings,” IWF maintained.

The PWLF may also face up to a four-year ban and a hefty fine. According to IWF rules, if three or more weightlifters fail dope tests in a year then the federation may be banned. “Yes, both Talha and Abubakar have been declared positive for using banned drugs. The ITA and PWF has also convened an online meeting with us on May 1 to ascertain why the four other weightlifters refused to submit samples during an attempted out-of-competition test conducted by the ITA in Pakistan,” a PWF official said.

“Our point of view is simple: those arriving in Pakistan for the tests refused to furnish their identity. At that point in time (early November), there were two parallel anti-doping organisations working in Pakistan and the one owned by the government told us through a letter that only they are responsible for collecting samples and not the other one working already. We have got an official letter written by the government that only NADO is authorised to conduct tests on the athletes. Fearing reaction from the government (Pakistan Sports Board), our players asked for identity which the conducting agency refused. Hence the weightlifters in question refused to allow the collection of samples thinking that it was not the genuine body,” a PWF official said.

He added they were in possession of all the relevant correspondence with them from the government that strongly backed their claim. “We will put all the relevant material in the May 1 virtual meeting with the international body,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ITA has confirmed that it has asserted anti-doping rule violation (ADRVS) against two Pakistan weightlifters for the presence of ‘prohibited substance’ and against four additional weightlifters for refusing or failing to submit samples.

The ITA reports that it has asserted apparent ADRVs against Talha and Abubakar under Article 2.1 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (presence of a prohibited substance or its metabolites or markers).

A sample collected from Talha, out of the competition on November 29, 2021, and another sample collected on December 10, 2021, during the 2021 IWF World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2021 World Championships) returned Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) for the prohibited steroid 19-norandrosterone.

A sample collected from Abubakar on December 9 during the 2021 World Championships has returned an AAF for the prohibited hormone and metabolic modulator tamoxifen metabolite.

A joint ITA and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation, initiated on the basis of ITA intelligence, also resulted in the ITA asserting apparent ADRVs against Muhammad Sharjeel Butt, Ghulam Mustafa, Abdur Rehman and Farhan Amjad under Article 2.3 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (Evading, Refusing or Failing to Submit to Sample Collection) for refusing to submit to sample collection.

All six weightlifters will now be out of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games while the cloud of the international ban also hovers over the PWF in case they failed to convince the international body that the four weightlifters in question were unaware of the ITA presence and were totally ignorant that the official turning up for sample collecting was not fake or the one from the parallel body.