Weightlifting prodigy Talha Talib among six blacklisted for doping
By Khurram Shezad Awan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s power lifting future seems to have fallen apart under the “performance pressure” as six young athletes had themselves thrown out of Commonwealth Games 2022 by testing positive for doping, it is learnt.
This unfortunate decision was taken after the International Testing Agency’s (ITA) first round of testing that found traces of banned performance enhancing drugs in the bodies of these young men ahead of the games starting in Birmingham from July 28.
One of those six budding power lifters is Talha Talib, who shot to stardom after clinching the fifth position in the 67kg category at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
Bets were heavy that he would bring gold home from CWG 2022.
Talib is said to have been the nemesis of his Indian opposite number Jeremy Lalrinnunga and with his early disgraceful exit the 67kg-category gold is likely on its way to India.
Talha tested positive for norandrosterone, is a banned performance enhancing drug of steroid chemistry, twice within 12 days in 2021. He was tested positive during the IWF World Championships where he finished third to claim bronze.
“All six athletes have been informed of the cases and have been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matters,” the ITA said in a statement.
“During the period of the provisional suspension, the athletes cannot inter alia participate in any capacity in any competition or any other activity either at the international or national level organised by any signatory of the World Anti-Doping code.”
After failing the dope test, Talib, in a letter to Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF), called it an “unintentional mistake”. Talib’s previous nine dope results all came back negative.
It is because ITA conducted surprise dope tests along with International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in Gujranwala and Lahore for all Pakistani weightlifters.
“I did it unknowingly,” said Talib, who was suspended on March 14, 2022.
In his letter to PWF, Talha said he had no idea about the presence of prohibited substances in his body.
“I will never even think about violating doping rules.”
Talib is the first medal-winner for Pakistan in the World Weightlifting Championship, while he got a bronze at Tashkent last year, barely missing gold at Tokyo Olympics 2020.
All of the banned athletes have been suspended provisionally and three of them are thus barred from competing at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, for which they had qualified.
Abubakar Ghani also tested positive in Tashkent for the prohibited hormone and metabolic modulator tamoxifen metabolite.
Ghani was13th in the 61kg class in the IWF World Championships and based on the rankings he had an outside chance of a medal in Birmingham.
Sharjeel Butt, second in 55kg, was a strong Commonwealth Games medal hope for Pakistan.
He has been provisionally suspended after being charged under Article 2.3 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules, which covers “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection”.
A joint ITA and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) investigation, initiated on the basis of ITA intelligence on November 10 last year resulted in these charges.
The four, charged with evading or refusing to submit a sample on that date, are Butt, Ghulam Mustafa, Abdur Rehman, and Farhan Amjad.
There are no results listed on the IWF website for Ghulam Mustafa .
According to the ITA statement, the prosecution of the cases is also being handled entirely by the ITA.
“Given that the cases are underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceedings.”
Under the IWF’s rules, Pakistan faces a severe punishment if the charges are proven.
Any country with three or more doping offences within a year is liable to be banned for up to four years and fined up to $500,000.
Pakistan has three athletes at the Commonwealth Games who have not been charged with any offence – Nooh Butt in the super-heavyweights, a strong medal contender, Hanzala Dastigir Butt in 109kg category, and Haider Ali in 81kg class.
Pakistan is also preparing a team for the Islamic Games in Konya, Turkey, scheduled to be held from August 9-18.
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