Kurash silver medallist becomes fifth Asian Games athlete to fail drugs test

HANGZHOU: Hangzhou Asian Games kurash men's +90kg silver medallist Tejen Tejenov of Turkmenistan has tested positive for banned substances and been provisionally suspended, the International Testing Agency (ITA) said on Thursday (Oct 5).

Tejenov is the first medallist and fifth athlete at the Hangzhou Games to have been reported by the ITA as failing a drugs test. The 30-year-old is a former judoka and wrestler who finished seventh in judo at the Jakarta Games in 2018.

Tejenov's test sample was taken on Sep 30 during the kurash men's +90kg finals, the ITA said.

It returned an "adverse analytical finding for the non-specified prohibited substances dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone metabolite and methasterone metabolites", the ITA said.

Tejenov's silver is Turkmenistan's best placing in Hangzhou so far. The central Asian country has also won four bronze medals in kurash, judo and boxing.

Uzbek cyclist Aleksey Fomovskiy and Philippine mountain biker Ariana Evangelista have also been suspended after testing positive, the ITA said on Wednesday.

Fomovskiy, 22, finished fifth in the men's omnium track cycling final on Sep 28 and sixth in the road time trial race on Tuesday.

Evangelista, 27, was the last to finish the women's mountain bike race on Sep 25.

Fomovskiy returned an "adverse analytical finding for anabolic androgenic steroids" during an in-competition test performed on the day of the omnium final, the ITA said.

Evangelista had returned adverse findings for erythropoietin (EPO) from blood and urine samples collected in an out-of-competition test on Sep 24.

Saudi Arabian distance runner Yousef Mohammed Alasiri and Afghanistan boxer Mohammad Khaibar Nooristani have also been suspended for failed tests, although unlike the kurash