FOR the first time in the history of the Asian Games, Malaysia had a gold medal shamefully withdrawn.
Wushu exponent Tai Cheau Xuen became the first Malaysian forced to return a medal after failing a dope test for the banned stimulant sibutramine, as announced by the Olympic Council for Asia (OCA).
More upsetting was the fact that Cheau Xuen, who turns 23 tomorrow, was Malaysia’s first gold medallist in Incheon but the stain of this shame will forever be associated with Malaysian sport.
OCA’s announcement came after Cheau Xuen’s B sample confirmed the findings of the A sample.
While chef-de-mission Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah pledged to pursue this case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), very rarely is a finding overturned.
“We are going to challenge this at CAS,” he said yesterday. “I believe there is no doping case here. I don’t think she did it.
“We will challenge on the ‘chain-of-custody’ basis. We want to know what happened when the sample was taken from point A to point B.”
Danyal, who for the past few days strongly denied a Malaysian athlete had tested positive, indicated the case may centre on possible allegations of tampering but this will be hard to prove.
Cheau Xuen did appear to have trouble providing a sample immediately after the conclusion of the nanquan-nandao event (in which she won bronze in 2010) on Sept 20 at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.
Timesport observed that Cheau Xuen was in doping control for a full hour before emerging for the medal ceremony and press conference. She then headed back to doping control.
Cheau Xuen was an unexpected gold medallist as the favourite, Wei Hong, made an error which caused China’s first defeat in a taolu event.
With the loss of this gold medal, it means the national wushu exponents are left with nothing.
This is not the first time Malaysia is involved in a doping scandal at the Asian Games.
In 2002, sepak takraw players Firdaus Abdul Ghani, Hanif Azman and Aznan Raslan were sent home in disgrace after testing positive for morphine, ironically in the South Korean city of Busan.
They were all suspended for two years.
More recently at the 2011 Sea Games in Indonesia, 400m runner Yunos Lasaleh tested positive for an anabolic steroid which resulted in the stripping of the 4x400m relay gold medal.
This case led to the eventual ouster of the top two officials in the Malaysian Athletics Federation.
At the same Games, weightlifter Firdaus Abdul Razak lost his bronze medal for a failed dope test.
Rugby player Amin Jamaluddin was suspended for six months by the International Rugby Board after testing positive for cannabis at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.