S’pore para athlete Khairi Ishak gets 4-year ban after failing drug test
National para sprinter Mohammad Khairi Ishak (photo, second from left) has received a four-year ban after testing positive for a banned substance. Photo: Andrew JK Tan / SportSG
SINGAPORE – National para sprinter Mohammad Khairi Ishak has been handed a four-year ban by the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee after testing positive for a banned substance.
The 28-year-old had tested positive for methandienone, an anabolic steroid, during an out-of-competition test by Anti-Doping Singapore (ADS) on March 12 this year.
As a result, he was handed a provisional suspension and was withdrawn from the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where he was initially scheduled to compete in the T47 100m race on Friday.
Khairi met the committee's three-man panel at a hearing at ADS on Thursday night, and the decision to impose a ban on the para athlete was announced two days later.
“The National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee has imposed a four-year ban commencing from the date that the provisional suspension came into effect on 6 April 2018,” said the ADS in a statement on Saturday.
“With this ban, Mohammad Khairi is not allowed to participate in any form of training or competition at a competitive level in any sport – either as a competitor or a support role; whether paid or volunteered; for the stipulated period of the ban.”
He has also been disqualified from all competitive results, medals, points and prizes awarded from March 12 onwards.
He will have till May 4, 2018, to appeal the decision, added the ADS.
Khairi, a silver medallist (T46 100m) at the 2017 Beijing World Para Athletics Grand Prix, had earlier told TODAY that he intends to submit an appeal. He said that he had purchased a supplement called protein isolate from a Malaysia-based company via its Facebook page, and he was unaware that it contained a banned substance.
He also claimed that supplement was Halal-certified, and that the distributor had assured him that the protein powder did not contain any banned substances..
Khairi, who has limited mobility in his right arm after he was involved in a motorcycle accident in 2011, is the first Singaporean para athlete to receive a ban for failing a doping test. Two years ago, wheelchair athlete Muhammad Firdaus Nordin was slapped with a four-year ban for trafficking methamphetamine. He was also jailed for five years for drug trafficking and consumption.
