KUALA LUMPUR, 27 FEBRUARY, 2012: The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will form a committee to investigate the recent dope scandal involving two athletes, after a meeting with the Indonesian SEA Games Organising Committee (INASOC) on Wednesday.

The OCM honorary secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi said a representative from INASOC would meet OCM on Wednesday to discuss the formation of a committee to investigate the case.

"If INASOC does not want to form a committee, they can pass the responsibility to OCM. However, they have yet to make a decision," he told Bernama at his office here today.

On Dec 21, INASOC had informed the OCM that two Malaysian athletes – Mohd  Yunus Lasalleh, a member of the gold medal winning men's 4x400m quartet and weightlifter Firdaus Abdul Razak, winner of a bronze medal in the men's 105kg weight category – had failed a dope test after the SEA Games in November.

Subsequently, the B Sample of both athletes had also tested positive for anabolic steroid.

Kok Chi said the MAU or the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) cannot form their own committee to investigate the two athletes who had tested positive because it falls under the jurisdiction of INASOC.

According to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) procedure, the respective organizing committee, in this case INASOC, must form their own anti-doping committee to carry out the investigation and not the respective associations.

"We (OCM) will inform MAU and the MWF of the latest development once the investigation is completed," he said.

Meanwhile, Kok Chi said the OCM was not in favor of MAU's proposal to set up a five-member panel to investigate the contents of a petition submitted by 42 national athletes and 16 national coaches, urging MAU deputy president Datuk Karim Ibrahim to be sacked.

The five proposed are OCM, MAU, Sports Commissioner, National Sports Council and National Sports Institute.

"Do not involve any of the five, including OCM, but find five independent members who do not have any vested interest in the doping case," he said.


- Bernama