HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body yesterday charged a gold-medal winning bodybuilder at the 2006 Doha Asian Games of bribing his way into the event after he was suspended from competition for failing a drugs test.Chan Yun-to, 43, was accused of conspiring to offer US$10,000 in bribes to the secretary-general of Asian Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation, Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement.
In return, the federation official “was said to have shortened or lifted the period of suspension of participating in any bodybuilding competition imposed on Chan,” enabling him to participate in the Doha event.
Chan, who won the men’s 75kg class at the Asian Games that year, had been released on bail and was due to appear in a Hong Kong court on December 31, the commission said.
ICAC said another suspended bodybuilder, whom it did not identify, also offered between US$13,000 and US$26,000 to the secretary-general.
It said its enquiries revealed that Chan was banned for two years and the other athlete for life after they failed doping tests at a championship in South Korea in 2005. — AFP