KUALA LUMPUR: They say you can’t compete while under suspension but they didn’t say you can’t coach.
National weightlifter Hafifi Mansor hopes that in this manner, he can still be active in the sport.
The 27-year-old Commonwealth champion from Terengganu is resigned to the fact that he will be slapped with a four-year suspension after testing positive for anabolic steroid oxymetholone at the Australian Open in Melbourne in March.
This means he will miss next year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Indonesia Asian Games.
Hafifi said he is waiting for Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) president Datuk Ong Poh Eng, now at the World Championships in the United States, to return to discuss his future.
While the MWF have yet to announce an official result, Hafifi, however, has admitted that his B sample test had failed.
"When Datuk Ong comes back, we will discuss. I can coach Terengganu or I can coach the Navy team, I am okay with anything,” he said today.
Hafifi believes that juniors like Azroy Hazal Wafie Izhar Ahmad has the potential to carry on the challenge at the Commonwealth Games.
"Hopefully Azroy will be able to fill in for me and bring home a gold for the country."
Hafifi, who competes in the under-69 kilogramme class, had won the gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.