Topic: News: Aussia, David Sarkisian, tests positive

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Aussia, David Sarkisian, tests positive
By Mike Hurs

THE son of the head coach of Australia's Commonwealth Games men's weightlifting team has tested positive to the banned male hormone testosterone - allegedly taken to enable him to father a child.

Yurik Sarkisian last night confirmed to The Daily Telegraph his son David, 24, ranked second in the Commonwealth in the 77kg division, had failed an out-of-competition test in Armenia in November.

But he said the failed test was the result of fertility treatment his son had undergone in a desperate bid to become a father.

Sarkisian said David had been taking a course of injections with a consulting professor of medicine in Armenia because he and his partner had been unable to conceive.

"David had been told by the professor that the problem was not with his wife to be, but with him. He had started a course and had received three of [a proposed] five injections when he was called to do a drug test," Sarkisian explained.

"When I heard about it, I immediately called the doctor and he told me what was in the injection and it included the name testosterone, a small amount not enough to help with training but enough to return a failed test result. The doctor wrote a letter in which he explained it was all his fault and I sent that letter to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency [ASADA] before they even received the test results from Europe."

Sarkisian acknowledged the failed test was "very bad for me, too".

"After 20 years and seven Olympic Games I've never been involved in anything like this," he said.

"It is embarrassing, but I intend to stay on as Games team coach."

Yurik Sarkisian is one of the most decorated weightlifters in history, having won eight world championship medals between 1980 and 1993.

In 1980 he set a world record for clean and jerk representing the USSR, only to finish with the silver medal in the 56kg division.

He broke 23 world records in the bantamweight and flyweight categories and remains one of only four men in history to have lifted triple bodyweight overhead.

ASADA is yet to issue confirmation of David's positive test or reveal what penalty may follow.

But testing positive for testosterone normally attracts a two-year ban under the association's rules.

"I can't fight with ASADA," Yurik added. "Rules are rules. But it is just an accident."