Trouble ahead for sprinters who failed to provide urine samples

KUALA LUMPUR: Six national sprinters may land in hot water for failing to provide urine samples for tests at the National Sports Institute (NSI) on Tuesday.

Five of them are members of the women’s relay team – Norjannah Hafiszah Jamaluddin, Nurul Sarah Abdul Kadir, Yee Yi Ling, Siti Zubaidah Adabi and Siti Fatimah Mohamed. The other is male sprinter Mohd Noor Imran.

The six were supposed to leave for Bulgaria on Saturday for a one-month training and competition stint.
The National Sports Council (NSC) director general, Datuk Zolkples Embong, said that the five women underwent medical tests but went missing when their urine samples were required for tests.
He added that Mohd Noor did not show up at all.

“All athletes for overseas stints have to undergo dope tests,” said Zolkples in a press conference, which was also attended by the NSI director, Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz.

“Those who fail to undergo the tests will be barred from competing in local and overseas competitions.”
Zolkples added that they would write to the Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union (MAAU) to take action against the sprinters.

“We also want the MAAU to question the national sprint coach, Harun Rasheed, because he is in charge of the six athletes,” he said.

“We (NSC) will stop funding MAAU athletes for overseas trips if the issue is not settled.”
The quartet of Norjannah, Nurul Sarah, Yi Ling and Siti Zubaidah set a new national record for the women’s 4x100m with a time of 45.33 in a meet in Poland last August.

The previous record of 45.37 was set by Anita Ali, G. Shanti, Sajaratuldur Hamzah and Mumtaz Jaafar in the 1989 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

Norjannah, Nurul Sarah, Yi Ling and Siti Zubaidah also competed in the Guangzhou Asian Games last November and they clocked 45.54 for sixth place.

THE STAR

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