Vietnam’s Quach Thi Lan celebrates winning gold in the women’s 400m hurdles final during the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in My Dinh National Stadium, Hanoi on May 17, 2022. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu / AFP)
HANOI — The Southeast Asian Sports Council has announced the names of 10 athletes involved in doping at the 31st Southeast Asian Games, including five from Vietnam
Among the Vietnamese athletes who have been stripped of their medals are Quach Thi Lan, who won gold in the women’s 400m hurdles and women’s 4x400m relay, and Khuat Phuong Anh, who took gold in the women’s 800m and silver in the women’s 1,500m.
The gold medal in the women’s long jump and 400m hurdles, however, will go to Vietnam, as Vietnamese athletes Bui Thi Thu Thao and Nguyen Thi Huyen were in second place.
The affected athletes will also be barred from participating in the SEA Games 2023, which is being held in Cambodia. In addition, the provisions on adjudication under the revised code of 2021 will be considered and applied to these athletes.
The scandal has rocked the region, with five other cases of doping also discovered at the Games.
Two athletes from Thailand, two from Myanmar, and one from Indonesia were also found to have used banned substances.
The ban on competition for these doping cases will be decided by the international federation of the sport.
The Vietnamese athletes have claimed that they unknowingly ingested the banned substances through a functional food that they all consumed. This explanation has not swayed the Sports Council, which has come down hard on these athletes in an effort to maintain the integrity of the Games.