Wushu gold medallist Tai tests positive at Asiad
Reuters: The banning of a Malaysian martial arts gold medallist for a doping offence overshadowed rare victories for Saudi Arabia and Singapore at the Asian Games on Tuesday.
Tai Cheau Xuen was stripped of the gold she won in wushu and kicked out of the Games after testing positive for sibutramine, a banned stimulant often found in weight-loss pills.
The 22-year-old Tai became the third competitor in the last week to be expelled from the Asian Games for drugs but the first medallist.
There was no immediate reaction from her or Malaysian team officials but the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) released a statement confirming the positive test and the automatic sanctions.
“After due process according to the rules and procedures of the OCA, it has been determined that the above finding constitutes an anti-doping rules violation,” the statement read.
Tai’s expulsion took the gloss of a rare triumphant day for Saudi Arabia and Singapore, who each collected gold on another day when the Chinese sporting machine continue to rumble on.
Saudi Arabia – which was heavily criticised by human rights groups for excluding women from its team – claimed just its second gold in Incheon when Abdullah Waleed Al Sharbatly won the equestrian individual jumping event.
Al Sharbatly finished level with Japan’s Satoshi Hirao after both had successive clear rounds. In the jump-off, Al Sharbatly had another clear round and got the gold when Hirao dropped a bar and incurred a penalty.
“It’s a great feeling to win a medal. There’s nothing better than winning the gold,” said Al Sharbtly, who won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2012 London Olympics.
“I was expecting the jump-off after seeing the second round. They made the course a bit bigger than other competitions.”
Singapore also picked up its second gold in Incheon with victory in the women’s bowling team of five event.
Shayna Ng, who reeled off six strikes in a row, joined Cherie Tan, Daphne Tan, New Hui Fen and Jazreel Tan for a winning total of 6,119 pins.
South Korea finished with the silver medal in the team event but won the individual title through Lee Na-young.
“I’m very happy with that,” she said. “But I feel sorry that we couldn’t get the gold in team of five.”
The host-nation also won two golds in soft tennis – which has a different scoring system and uses softer balls than regular tennis – with Kim Hyeong-jun winning the men’s singles title and Kim Bomi taking out the women’s singles.
Most of the other medals decided early on Tuesday were won by China, which took its already insurmountable medal haul to 250, including 118 golds, with four-and-a-half days of competition still to go.
As expected, China completed a sweep of the synchronised diving events by winning the men’s 3-metre springboard and women’s 10-metre platform finals.
China also won the women’s team table tennis title and both cross-country mountain bike races, Wang Zhen pedalling to victory in the men’s and Shi Qinglan in the women’s.
Qiang Wang of China won the women’s tennis singles title, beating Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand 6-3 7-6 (7-5) while Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka upset top seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-2 6-2 in the men’s gold medal match.
