The Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee yesterday published a list of 11 Taiwanese athletes who would be temporarily banned from participating in world sports events after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
In a letter dated March 6, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) asked the committee to make public the list of contravening athletes and the duration of their ban before Friday next week.
Two-time weightlifting champion Hsu Shu-ching (許淑淨) was listed among the offenders, while Lin Tsu-chi (林子琦), already banned for testing positive during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, is under a six-year ban for a repeat offense.
Photo: Hsu Cho-hsun, Taipei Times
Others on the list are Chen Pin-sheng (陳品升), Yang Fu-chieh (楊富傑), Yeh Mu-han (葉慕涵) and Chen Kung-wen (陳孔文) in the bodybuilding category, as well as Chen Shih-hao (陳士豪), Chang Yu-hsi (張有錫), Chiang Kai-chieh (江凱傑) and Huang Lung-hsing (黃龍興) in the powerlifting category.
Wu Chou-wei (吳宙威), a hammer thrower, is also on the list.
While former Taekwondo athlete Chuang Chia-chia (莊佳佳), the director of the Taoyuan Department of Sports, is not on the list, allegations emerged yesterday that she has been banned from participating in sports events for failing to report to the WADA about her whereabouts in 2017.
Chuang confirmed the allegations, saying a petition has been filed, but added that the ban was not related to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Sports Administration Director-General Kao Chin-hsung (高俊雄) said that the agency would convene a meeting within two weeks to determine whether it would demand that Hsu return her salary as a coach at the National Sports Training Center in Kaohsiung during the time she was banned, which began in January last year.
Hsu has already resigned as a center coach.
Pundits have said that Hsu’s defense of “accidental ingestion” of the drug as weak, as both she and Lin tested positive for the same substance.
The agency will also re-evaluate the suitability of coach Tsai Wen-yee (蔡溫義), Kao said.
Kao pledged that a final decision would be made prior to April 15 on whether Tsai would be allowed to stay on as a coach.
The agency is also mulling whether to establish a separate drug-testing unit, which is currently handled by the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, he said, adding that a review of extant regulations would be required.
The agency is focused foremost on the protection of athletes’ right to participate in sports events, but this focus must be tempered by observation of international regulations, Kao said.
Additional reporting by CNA
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we