Two Pak athletes test positive for doping ahead of Beijing Olympics

Islamabad, July 10 : Two Pakistani athletes, including a female, bidding for wild card entries to represent their country at the Beijing Olympic Games beginning next month, have reportedly tested positive for doping. Now, their cases will be probed by an inquiry commission of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP).

The AFP inquiry commission is scheduled to hear the cases of the athletes today at the Pakistan Sports Complex.

The two athletes have been identified as Mohammad Shah and Noshee Parveen, both hurdlers.

In the backdrop of the finding, the AFP has also decided that all top athletes must to undergo a dope test before participating in any international event in future.

"Both Shah and Noshee have tested positive for doping and the federation has formed an inquiry committee to decide on their future. We have also decided that all the top athletes will undergo a dope test before participating in any international event from now on," the Dawn quoted AFP Secretary Khalid Mahmood as saying.

Shah, a 110 meter hurdler, was found positive for performance enhancing drug Stanozolol (hydroxystanozolol) which is a clear breach of International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules 32.2 (a). Female athlete Noshee Parveen, a 100 meter hurdler, also breached the same rule of IAAF after she tested positive for Nandrolone (19-norandrosterone) with a level at 47.23 ng/ml, greater than the threshold of 2 ng/ml.

As per rules, first-time offenders usually receive a two-year ban for doping offence and the same could be the fate of the two athletes, added the paper.

This is the second time when Pakistani athletes have been found positive in a doping case this year. In April, athlete Mohammad Sajjad, also a 110m hurdler, was suspended for two years for using performance-enhancing drugs.

ANI