Weightlifting - Malvina gets four-year ban |16 March 2016

Female weightlifter Ruby Malvina has been banned for four years by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) after her failed drug tests last year.

Malvina had been a standout performer with three gold medals at the 9th Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) held in Reunion last year and followed that up with great performances at the All-Africa Games and at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in India, but then things turned sour after she tested positive for a banned performance enhancing drug – stanozolol.

She claimed two gold medals in clean & jerk (109kg) and Olympic total (189kg) as well as one silver medal in snatch (80kg) to become the first Seychellois athlete to win two gold medals in the same year at the All-Africa Games.

At the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Pune, Malvina won the gold medal in the 58kg category with a total lift of 197kg (85kg in snatch and 112kg in clean & jerk). She has since relinquished all the medals won at these two events after testing positive for banned substances.

Her third positive result came in an out-of-competition test when samples were taken here and sent to South Africa to be analysed.

Stanozolol, commonly sold under the name Winstrol (oral) and Winstrol Depot (intramuscular), is a synthetic anabolic steroid derived from dihydrotestosterone. It was developed by Winthrop Laboratories (Sterling Drug) in 1962, and has been approved for human use by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) – a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Malvina will now be unable to compete in any weightlifting event, be it local or international, although she can still train until the ban is over.

Malvina is the fourth Seychellois lifter to test positive for banned substances.  Charles Simeon was banned for two years in 2009 when he failed a doping test in Kenya at the African Championships, a competition where he was recognised as the best junior lifter. Brenda Lozaique was banned for two years for using performance enhancing drugs at the Olympic qualifiers in South Africa in 2011 and a second male weightlifter tested positive for banned substances during last year’s ninth Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) in Reunion.

News of the positive test had already reached Seychelles since last year, but it officially broke out during the first CIJ (Conseil International des Jeux) meeting in Mauritius in preparation for the next IOIG which Mauritius will organise in 2019.

Although the name of the athlete was not revealed, it was announced that he will be stripped of his three silver medals when all the procedures have been completed.

S. N.