Funny & sorrowful stories of doping
| 15:31' 01/07/2007 (GMT+7) | ||
Precaution is necessary
According to VFF, after a series of scandals in which young players were discovered to be using drugs like the cases of Xuan Thanh and Luu Van Hien, such tests are necessary for football players, including members of the national squad, because narcotics are banned by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee.
A VFF official, Pham Quang, said: “I don’t believe that a member of the national squad is using drugs or doping but we still have to perform the test in advance to be assured.”
Actually, AFC representatives warned VFF about banned substances at the Asian vision workshop in 2004. At that time, AFC’s health director Gurchanran Sigh said: “AFC is interested in this issue and it warns national football federations to invest in its sport health system. It is regrettable that Vietnam is weak in this area.”
However, VFF is worrying about the funding for drug tests, which cost around $200 per quick test. To ‘check’ over 20 members of the national football squad, VFF has to spend $5,000. Meanwhile, Vietnam can’t afford to build a drug test centre, at $20 to $40 million.
Don’t cry about drugs…
There has been no Vietnamese football player recently found to be using drugs, but there have been several athletes in other fields, for example divers Pham Thi Diu and Pham Toan Thang, boat racer Hoang Hong Anh, and athletic sportswoman Pham Mai Quynh. These cases were ‘shocks’ to Vietnamese sports leaders at the 22nd SEA Games.
After the 22nd SEA Games, another Vietnamese athlete tested positive, bodybuilder Nguyen Van Tuan, who was fined $2,000 by the Asian Bodybuilding Confederation.
“Elite sports can’t lack medicines, but what are they and are they on the banned list?” said a sports official, frankly.
It is very complicated for banned substances. Dr. Le Quy Phuong, Director of the Sports and Physical Training Medicine Institute said: “Drinking too much coffee before playing may bring about a positive test.”
In addition, the knowledge of drugs of Vietnamese athletes is limited. The list of banned medicines includes several hundred types. Even when athletes use normal medicines to cure colds, stomach aches tests may show a positive result.
Funny and sorrowful stories about drugs
Many funny and sorrowful stories happened at the 22nd SEA Games in Vietnam related to drug tests. For example, after Lan Anh won the gold medal in the woman’s 1,500m event, exceeding the SEA Games record, there was rumour that she had used drugs, reasoning that Vietnamese people could not run as fast as she did. Moreover, Lan An’s record at the pre-SEA Games event was not so good. Thus, the athlete was kept for two hours in a room to provide samples for tests.
Runner Nguyen Thi Tinh was in the same situation. “I also had to wait for her for several hours till experts took samples for tests because I had to sign the sample-taking document. At midnight we returned to the hotel and Tinh vomited water,” said the Secretary General of the Hanoi Athletics Federation, Thanh Van.
Many people still doubt ‘candies’ of the former coach of the Vietnamese national football squad Tavares.
In 1995, experts were amazed with the ‘physical strength revolution’ that this coach brought to the Vietnamese national team.
Many people raised questions about the green candies that this coach gave his players after each match and during drills. His assistants also reported to VFF leaders about those candies.
Nearly ten years later, Tavares once again gave those candies to his players at the Tiger Cup. Are those candies a kind of performance-enhancing drug? Tavares said that these were normal candies and he gave players those candies as a ‘spiritual drug’.
Before the 23rd SEA Games, some heard about a ‘natural dope’ of the Vietnamese sports delegation. The Sports and Physical Training Science Institute at that time decided to buy holuthurian and sea-snake pills produced by the Biotechnology Institute. This pill was joked to be ‘domestic viagra’ because it helps increase testosterone in men and increase strength.
After the Vietnamese sports delegation returned from 23rd SEA Games with many records, the pill was praised for its effects and it is lucky that there was no problem found with this kind of medicine.
Previously, the national football squad used one kind of medicine named ‘Cao tu duong’, which was questioned to be one kind of drug. However, the Sports and Physical Training Medicine Institute said that it was not banned.
At the 22nd SEA Games, coach Alfred Riedl’s assistant Nguyen Thanh Vinh told football players to eat dog meat before each match because according to Mr Vinh, dog meat is a ‘natural performance enhancer’.
(Source:Viet Nam Net) |
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