Weightlifting: Thailand faces Olympic ban after six positives at worlds

[snoop1130]

Weightlifting: Thailand faces Olympic ban after six positives at worlds

by Brian Oliver

 

FILE PHOTO: 2016 Rio Olympics - Weightlifting - Final - Women's 58kg - Riocentro - Pavilion 2 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 08/08/2016. Sukanya Srisurat (THA) of Thailand competes. REUTERS/Yves Herman

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Thailand’s weightlifters face a ban from the Tokyo 2020 Games after six positive tests, two of them from reigning Olympic champions, at last year’s World Championships.

 

The Thais were caught when the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) carried out extra tests in Cologne, Germany, on samples taken last November from “target athletes” at the World Championships in Turkmenistan.

 

Any nation with three or more positives in a calendar year faces a ban of up to four years. Thailand had six, from a team of 19, at the World Championships, and has two further doping cases yet to be resolved since December 2017.

 

The country was also involved in a doping scandal in 2011 when seven teenage girls were banned after testing positive, two of whom are among the six new cases.

 

Thailand is hosting this year’s IWF World Championships in September but if suspended it would have to withdraw.

 

The IWF said in a statement that it had previously suspended nine countries for repeated doping offences and it “will not hesitate” to do the same again.

 

The decision will rest with a new sanctioning panel comprising anti-doping experts and lawyers from the United States, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.

 

The first two of Thailand’s World Championships positives were announced on Dec. 23 — women’s super-heavyweight bronze medalist Duanganksnorn Chaidee, and 17-year-old Teerapat Chomchuen, the only male among the six.

 

The other four, named by the IWF on Wednesday, are reigning Olympic champions Sopita Tanasan (48kg) and Sukanya Srisurat (58kg), plus Thunya Sukcharoen and Chitchanok Pulsabsakul.

 

Srisurat and Pulsabsakul were caught up in the 2011 scandal and suspended for two years.

 

Srisurat and Sukcharoen both won World Championships gold in Turkmenistan, where Thailand finished second behind China in the medals table.

 

ROLE MODEL

 

Earlier this month, the Thailand Amateur Weightlifting Federation (TAWA) celebrated its 60th anniversary with a visit to IWF headquarters in Budapest where its president, Boossaba Yodbangtoey, spoke of the great strides made by the sport.

 

Boossaba is general secretary of the Asian Weightlifting Federation and her husband, Intarat Yodbangtoey, is a vice-president of the IWF.

 

Boossaba said in Budapest that weightlifting was Thailand’s most popular Olympic sport and that her success in recruiting girls to the sport made her “a role model”.

 

TAWA said in a statement on social media that it was “greatly surprised and confused” by the new positives, and that it had already set up an internal inquiry. “If it is found there are wrongdoers, they will be punished,” it said.

 

Boosaba was not immediately available to comment when contacted by Reuters.

 

The IWF had said in a statement that it tested more than half of the 600 athletes at the 2018 World Championships, with no positives.

 

But it then carried out further analysis on “targeted athletes” samples” at the Cologne anti-doping laboratory, using “the most sophisticated available technique: Gas Chromatography-Combustion-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS)”.

 

This led to the Thai positives.

 

Weightlifting is effectively ‘on probation’ at Tokyo 2020, having been told its place on the Olympic Games schedule beyond then is under review.

 

The IWF has toughened up its anti-doping procedures and said: “The IWF remains committed to implement the most advanced testing techniques to ensure that the very small minority who cheat are identified and sanctioned.

 

“With the IWF’s anti-doping efforts before, during and after the 2018 IWF World Weightlifting Championships, this was proven once again.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-01-24

[stanleycoin]

Oh, Thai's cheating.

Shocking behaviour. 

[PatOngo]

But Your Honor, they told me it was vitamin C and I believed them, it's all a misunderstanding!

[faraday]

Weightlifter's taking performance enhancing drugs... who'd have thunk it?

????

[fruitman]

54 minutes ago, stanleycoin said:

Oh, Thai's cheating.

Shocking behaviour. 

A Thai won't do that, it must be a misunderstanding...

[Ks45672]

12 minutes ago, fruitman said:

A Thai won't do that, it must be a misunderstanding...

If it happened in Thailand, the results would get lost at the lab etc.. ???? 

 

Germans on the other hand, take rules and regulations a bit more seriously lol

[Enoon]

 

And to think I was cheering on the "plucky little Thai" lifters at the Olympics

 

I feel so betrayed.

 

 

[Hank Gunn]

Looks like they had a few "Vera de Milos" on the Thai weightlifting team. ????

 

 

[faraday]

Doesn't say what was detected.

 

Probably just a cold medicine, or something for their Asthma....????

[KiChakayan]

Didn't know Chris Froome had a harem of Thai weightlifters..

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand is hosting this year’s IWF World Championships in September but if suspended it would have to withdraw.

Oops

[sammieuk1]

My bet a shed load of testosterone in the women and some bits that shouldn't be there just guessing ???? 

[metisdead]

A Trump troll post has been removed. 

[HalfLight]

Nossir, it was someone else entirely, and anyway, it wasn't Thailands' fault nossir.

 

They just don't understand Thailand. And anyway, the head boy says...

 

And so on...

[dcnx]

So... who are they blaming? It can’t be the Thais fault. 

[Bluespunk]

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Boossaba said in Budapest that weightlifting was Thailand’s most popular Olympic sport and that her success in recruiting girls to the sport made her “a role model”.

Someone sure loves them self.

 

Can just imagine her staring into the mirror, whispering to herself,

 

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most wonderful of all?"

Edited January 24, 2019 by Bluespunk

[Damrongsak]

8 hours ago, PatOngo said:

But Your Honor, they told me it was vitamin C and I believed them, it's all a misunderstanding!

Something in the Som Tum doesn't smell right.  Bad batch of Pla Raa? 

[fruitman]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand is hosting this year’s IWF World Championships in September but if suspended it would have to withdraw.

 

Can you imagine how many billions of baht are lost by this....what a shame! Sporters and supporters from all over the world would have come, booked hotels/tuk tuks and eaten rice all days....

[happy chappie]

It was only to be expected really.im surprised that more athletes in Thailand aren't banned from international sport.lets face it Thais are always up for a good bit of cheating whatever the game may be.

[Somtamnication]

No, impossible. Thais don't cheat, ever!

[Sonhia]

Oh dear, cheats with lost faces.

[robblok]

26 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

It was only to be expected really.im surprised that more athletes in Thailand aren't banned from international sport.lets face it Thais are always up for a good bit of cheating whatever the game may be.

Unlike others in the sports like Lance Armstrong for instance. The whole top of sports is full of performance enhancing drugs nothing new here. Some people are just better at not getting caught then others. 

 

I don't condone it but that is the reality. Its not unique Thai thing.

Edited January 25, 2019 by robblok

[faraday]

Absolutely, as Robblok says. ????

 

I think that most probably at top level competition, it's often about one "drug company" against another one producing an undetectable ped ( performance enhancing drug)

 

[lonewolf99]

That Armstrong guy - the biggest liar ever - and some people still believe he walked on the moon..................

 

All sport at the highest level is full of cheats. The Thais seem to have fallen foul of of a country that tests properly.

 

 

 

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, happy chappie said:

It was only to be expected really.im surprised that more athletes in Thailand aren't banned from international sport.lets face it Thais are always up for a good bit of cheating whatever the game may be.

Exactly right. While cheating is common in some degree across the globe, in places like Thailand, China and Russia, it's the norm rather than the exception. 

 

And, Thais and Chinese especially, generally, have no moral barrier against cheating. It's normal to them. 

[HalfLight]

11 hours ago, dcnx said:

So... who are they blaming? It can’t be the Thais fault. 

 

Everyone else.

 

Not Thais. Definitely not Thais

 

Nossir. Foreigners no unnerstan Thai peepol, We free do wot we wunt.

 

Mind you, their determination to win by fair means must have taken a big knock now they can't hold a picture up at the Olympics.

 

All hail.

 

 

[holy cow cm]

Making Thailand look not good, real bad. So who is going to be locked up for it? Isn’t that the law, especially in an international stage such as that?

[robblok]

33 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Exactly right. While cheating is common in some degree across the globe, in places like Thailand, China and Russia, it's the norm rather than the exception. 

 

And, Thais and Chinese especially, generally, have no moral barrier against cheating. It's normal to them. 

Right read up about lance Armstrong the American hero, bet he cheated more during his career then these Thais. Its funny how people say that other countries have high moral grounds while its rampart in their country too. They even found PED in Dutch non professional soccer clubs. 

 

The whole sports are full of them all you need to do is open your eyes.

[robblok]

15 minutes ago, holy cow cm said:

Making Thailand look not good, real bad. So who is going to be locked up for it? Isn’t that the law, especially in an international stage such as that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_athletics

 

just sort on country and see how many times Western countries are involved too. People don't go jail for this they get suspended that is it. 

 

Tyson gray anyone ? Diego Maradona perhaps ? Ben Johnson ?  Shane Warne

 

https://edgardaily.com/articles/10-famous-athletes-caught-doping/

[Kieran00001]

55 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Exactly right. While cheating is common in some degree across the globe, in places like Thailand, China and Russia, it's the norm rather than the exception. 

 

And, Thais and Chinese especially, generally, have no moral barrier against cheating. It's normal to them. 

 

Its gone on since the Stadion at Olympia, they had "magic potions" in ancient Greece which could enhance performance, while those who won at the games had their statues added to the temple of Zeus, those caught cheating had their image carved in the pathway leading to the stadium.