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Four athletes suspended Powerlifters tested positive before start of competition
Updated: Saturday October 21, 2000 8:45 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Powerlifters from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Iran have been banned from competition for four years after failing doping tests in Sydney before the 2000 Paralympics. The International Paralympic Committee on Saturday revealed that Radko Radev of Bulgaria, Aurel Berbec of Romania, Ali Mahmoudkikordkheili of Iran and Russian female lifter Marina Diakonova had tested positive to banned substances. The four-year suspensions will extend beyond the 2004 Paralympics, the IPC said. The IPC held hearings with all athletes before releasing a statement naming the them as the first drug cheats caught at a Paralympic Summer Games since Barcelona in 1992. No positive cases were reported in Atlanta four years ago, although out-of-competition testing was only introduced for the Oct. 18-29 Sydney Games. Two lifters tested positive for anabolic steroids, Berbec for Stanozolol and Mahmoudkikordkheili for Methandienone, while Diakonova and Radev returned positive samples for banned diuretics. All four had been withdrawn from competition after failing initial tests but, under IPC rules, sanctions could not be imposed until analysis of backup samples confirmed the positive result. IPC President Dr. Robert Steadward promised full and open disclosure of the details of the doping cases when announcing the positive results Friday, but he was not available for comment Saturday. Steadward and IPC medical director Michael Riding were expected to attend a press conference scheduled for Sunday morning. The Iran delegation said it was arranging for Mahmoudikordkheili to be sent home Sunday. Habib Banai, chef de mission of the 41-strong Iran team, said the disgraced athlete would receive further sanctions from Irani sporting officials because his actions had brought shame on the entire delegation. "We are very upset. We are completely against doping and do not encourage at all the doping of any Iranian athletes," said Banai, speaking through a translator. "We were completely unaware of this. This person has done this kind of thing in private." Russian officials at the powerlifting venue declined to comment immediately. Bulgarian and Romanian could not be contacted. Powerlifting is a version of weightlifting where athletes lie on a bench and press weights up with their arms. The latest cases have further dented the reputation of weightlifting, which produced four of the 11 positive doping cases during the Sept. 15-Oct. 1 Sydney Olympics. Three Bulgarians and an Armenian were stripped of weightlifting medals during the Sydney Games. Bulgaria's Izabela Dragneva won the first ever women's Olympic weightlifting gold medal but her result was voided and she was banned when her urine sample showed traces of furosemide, a banned diuretic. Two Romanians tested positive even before the games began and were tossed out of the Olympic Village, while other weightlifters withdrew with mysterious illnesses just before competition.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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