The Pacific Games Council has confirmed that two athletes failed dope tests at the Honiara Games last year, and each has been disqualified and banned for three years.
For Mahaasin Daoe from Nauru it means he has had to surrender the gold medal he won in men’s powerlifting, while shot putter Tumatai Dauphin from Tahiti has forfeited his silver medal.
Daoe’s disqualification means Kaiti Tentau of Kiribati has been promoted to gold, and his country has leapt over Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna on the final medal table.
Vinesh Chad of Fiji has moved up to silver and Rocky Ramo of Solomon Islands gets bronze.
Dauphin’s demotion means his silver medal now goes to Nathaniel Sulupo of Samoa, while Nauru’s Jonathan Deiwea Detageouwa moves up to bronze.
Doping violations at the Pacific Games are historically rare, and in this case officials have ruled that there was no intent on the part the two disqualified athletes to cheat by using performance enhancing drugs, but the council’s chief executive, Andrew Minogue, says none the less, they broke the rules.
It’s estimated that around 350 doping control tests were conducted in Honiara last year, which means for any athlete there was a one in ten chance that they could come under scrutiny.
Past history points to two positive cases at the 2015 Games in Port Moresby, and eight or nine in Noumea in 2011, when body-builders in particular fell foul of the rules and their federation was compelled to clean up its act.
These latest bans mean both offenders will be eligible to compete at the Tahiti Games in 2027, but Papua New Guinea swimming great, Ryan Pini, who chairs the athletes’ council for WADA, the World Anti-Doping Authority, says between now and then they will be barred from all competitions, unless their respective federations choose to intervene.
