KUCHING: Sukma XVII Sportswoman Jelinie Empera did not take prohibited drugs but instead consumed traditional medicine to control her menstrual period.
File picture shows Jelinie with her Sportswoman award at Tuanku Syed Putra Stadium.
This was what Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) acting director Lucas Kalang Laeng opined when contacted on the allegation that Jelinie was tested positive for steroids after lifting her way to two gold medals at Sukma XVII in May in Perlis this year.
Lucas said MSNS will contact the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation soon to clarify the matter.
“Think logically, how is she (Jelinie) able to get steroid in the kampung,” Lucas asked.
“What she actually took was traditional medicine acquired in her kampung to control her period because she was having
an irregular period cycle at the time,” he said, adding it had
become common for Jelinie to consume the traditional medicine before taking part in competitions.
“This is actually a misunderstanding. Our national doping agent in India will normally classify the foreign contents detected in the athletes’ blood or urine such as drugs,” he said.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was said to have announced on the Bernama website that Jelinie was stripped of the gold medals won in the women’s 75kg below snatch and clean as well as the jerk events in weightlifting after she had failed the drug tests.
According to Khairy, samples A and B of Jelinie were found positive after being tested in India in July and end of August as Malaysia did not have the facilities to conduct doping tests for athletes.
Meanwhile, Jelinie when contacted said she only knew of the shocking news from her coach yesterday.
“I was shocked and sad when my coach told me of the news,” she said.
“As far as I know, the supplement that I took all this while was from the MSNS. That’s all.”
She hoped that a thorough investigation would be carried out to clear her name and the image of Sarawak.