WAIT FOR DRUG RESULT

MELBOURNE: Weightlifting officials are sweating on further results
after a positive drugs test by national record-holder Johnny Nguyen.

The former Vietnamese boat refugee has become the third Australian
weightlifter to test positive to drugs this year, clouding the
integrity of the sport.

Nguyen was found to have taken the banned steroid stanozolol, used by
disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson.

Australian Weightlifting Federation president Sam Coffa said he was
disappointed the sport had to face another drug problem, but added he
would wait on the B sample. 'One is one too many for me,' Coffa said.

'But we still haven't received a result of the B sample and if the B
sample contradicts what the A sample says then there's no infection.

'Or if the B sample proves to be tampered with or incorrectly opened
or sealed then that would be cause for the matter to be completely
dropped.'

AWF executive director Rob Kabbas said the B sample would be analysed
on Tuesday, but could not say when the results would be issued.

'Until we know the results of the final test we will not be releasing
the name of the athlete,' Kabbas said.

But a newspaper report said it was Nguyen, who was a hot gold medal
favourite in the 56kg category at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

He surprisingly failed to win any medals.

Nguyen, of NSW, was tested before the Commonwealth Games but the
result was not available until after the Games.

He is the national record-holder in the snatch, clean and jerk and
combined events, and was favoured to win all three medals in the 56kg
class at KL yet finished with none.

Nguyen's coach Luke Borreggine would not comment on the
issue.

The positive test comes only weeks after Duncan Van Rooyen, a reserve
for the Commonwealth Games team, revealed he had tested positive to a
banned substance.

Van Rooyen tested positive to the banned drug clenbuterol, saying he'd
taken a powder at a party where he was drowning his sorrows after not
making the Games team.

He and Nguyen are yet to front the Court of Arbitration for Sport,
where they will receive the mandatory two-year bans for such offences.

Harvey Goodman, who was expected to win triple gold at the Games, was
also banned for two years in May this year after recording an illegal
testosterone level.

Coffa said he was not aware of another investigation into the drug
results of an Australian junior representative.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry