Paralympics duo banned over drugs

Two Paralympic athletes from Azerbaijan have been banned for life after failing drugs tests at the Athens Paralympics, organisers announced today.

Powerlifters Sara Abbasova and Gunduz Ismayilov have become the first athletes to be kicked out of the Games after respectively testing positive for adverse amounts of nandrolone and stanozolol on September 18.

Both are previous offenders who have already served two-year bans with Abbasova having failed a drugs test at the 2001 IPC Powerlifting European Championships and Ismayilov serving his sanction for a doping offence at the Sydney Paralympics.

With lessons clearly not learned, the International Paralympic Committee came down hard on the pair.

A total of nine powerlifting doping offences occurred during the Sydney Games four years ago and there have been suggestions from within the IPC that powerlifting should be dropped from the Paralympic programme.

“These positive tests show that the doping controls are working,” said IPC communications director Miriam Wilkens, who sought to play down the idea the sport should be scratched in the wake of the fresh drugs scandal.

“I don’t think we should put too much emphasis on these two cases. We will monitor powerlifting and take the appropriate measures after the Games, should we experience a similar development as was the case in Sydney.”

A total of 335 of the 670 doping tests have been carried out at the Athens Games so far.