Paralympic athlete blames positive drug test on hair-loss treatment
10 Sep 2008, by in TRICHOLOGISTA German wheelchair basketball player has blamed a positive drug test on the treatment he was taking for hair loss after he was thrown out of the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
By Telegraph staff and agencies
Last Updated: 2:16PM BST 10 Sep 2008
Unavailable: Ahmet Coskun did not play in Germany’s 73-6-3 pool match victory over Iran
Photo: Getty Images
A statement from the German National Paralympic Committee said Ahmet Coskun had tested positive for finasteride, a drug used to treat hair loss but which can also mask other banned substances, after a pre-competition urine test on Aug 23.
“I was thinking about my hair and had no idea that the drug contained a banned substance. I’m very upset. I never intended to do doping,” Coskun said.
German chef de mission Karl Quade expressed regret at the news. “We take the issue of anti-doping very seriously. We’ve been carrying out an intensive anti-doping campaign for years in cooperation with NADA (the German anti-doping agency),” he said in a statement.
Coskun, 33, who played for Germany in three of their pool matches but not in Wednesday’s 73-63 win over Iran, will return home soon, German paralympic chiefs said.
Coskun was the second athlete to have tested positive at the Games. Pakistani powerlifter Naveed Ahmed Butt, 37, tested positive for the steroid methandienone metabolites on Sept 4, two days before the opening ceremony.
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