Malaysia’s Tai Cheau Xuen yesterday lost an appeal against a doping failure that saw her stripped of her gold medal. (AFP)
Malaysia’s Tai Cheau Xuen, who was expelled from the Asian Games and stripped of the gold medal she won in martial arts, has lost her appeal to have her ban for doping overturned.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced earlier this week that Tai had tested positive for sibutramine, a banned stimulant often found in weight-loss pills.
She was automatically disqualified from Asia’s biggest multi-sports event, stripped of her accreditation and told to hand back the gold medal she won in wushu.
The 22-year-old denied taking drugs and lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has set up an ad hoc division in Incheon to deal with issues from the Asian Games.
But CAS released a statement yesterday saying it had rejected her appeal and the penalties would stand.
“The Panel rendered its decision at 3:30pm today, dismissing the application of the athlete and confirming the OCA decision to disqualify her from the Games,” said the statement.
“As a consequence, the medals in the women’s Wushu Nanquan and Nandao competition will be re-allocated by OCA.”
Tai won the women’s all around event on the first day of competition but the OCA later said her urine specimen was found to contain sibutramine, which was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances earlier this year.
In accordance with its own rules for drug offences, the OCA disqualified Tai from the event and reallocated the medals.
Indonesia’s Juwita Niza Wasni, who finished second in the competition, was promoted to the gold medal position while China’s Wei Hong moved up to the silver medal and Ivana Ardelia Irmanto of Indonesia to the bronze after originally finishing fourth overall.
The decision to ban Tai has infuriated Malaysian team officials who came out strongly in support of her. There was no immediate reaction from her or her national federation following Thursday’s decision.
Tai, who won the world championship in the nanquan discipline last year, is one of the five athletes to fail doping tests at the 17th Asian Games, which end in South Korea tomorrow.
Cambodian soft tennis player Yi Sophany was also thrown out after testing positive for sibutramine while Tajikistan football player Khurshed Beknazarov was ejected after his doping test showed the presence of the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.
Iraqi weightlifter Mohamed Jasim Abboo al-Aifuri and Syrian karate competitor Nour Aldin al-Kurdi both tested positive for steroids. They too were kicked out of the Games.