KATHMANDU, OCT 7: Three of the 1069 sportspersons who participated in the recently-concluded eighth South Asian Federation (SAF) Games here have tested ``positive'' to banned substances. But authorities said any punitive action against the offenders will have to await a second sample also testing positive.According to South Asia Sports Federation (SASF) secretary general Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, the urine samples testing positive for banned substances listed by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) belong to two Sri Lankans and an India. The National Olympic committees concerned have been informed about the positive-tests prior to carrying out ``confirmatory analysis'' of the second sample from the sportspersons.Pradhan, while refusing to divulge the names or the sex of the offending sportspersons, made it clear that the Indian testing ``positive'' for banned drug Nandrolone swam in the 50m freestyle event. Sebastian Xavier and Elvis Hazarika participated in the men's event while Nisha Millet was the sole Indian entry for the women's event.The two Sri Lankans were an athlete - also testing positive for Nandrolone - taking part in the men's 400m hurdles and a weight-lifter in the 85 kg category testing positive for ephedrine, Pradhan said. The doping control committee here had randomly taken samples from 100 sportspersons who included one-third of the 162 gold medallists in the recent Games. The collected samples were tested at a Penang, Malaysia-based laboratory - the only one of four such IOC-approved facilities in Asia and among 26 worldwide.This was for the first time in the 15-year history of the SAF Games that doping tests were conducted formally - though dope-tests were also carried out earlier during the 1989 SAF Games in Islamabad, they were more of an informal nature and it was never made public as to how many tests had been conducted then.
