KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — National women’s diving athlete, Wendy Ng Yan Yee has been slapped with an eight-month suspension by the International Swimming Federation (Fina) for a doping offence.
Association Swimming of Malaysia (Asum) secretary Mae Chen said the 24-year-old Kuala Lumpur-born diver will serve the punishment from Aug 26 2017, when the latter’s urine sample was taken until April 26 2018.
“I’ve received the e-mail last night from Fina which informed that Yan Yee will serve an eight-month suspension following her doping case and therefore, she will not be in the list for the 2018 Commonwealth Games,” she said when contacted by Bernama today.
Chen revealed that Yan Yee would only resume training with the national diving squad on April 15 to prepare for the 2018 Asian Games to be held in Indonesia from Aug 18-Sept 2.
On another note, Chen said that the national squad would depart for Gold Coast, Australia on March 26 to acclimatise with the environment of the competition venue.
“I was informed earlier that the flag handing ceremony would take place on the Aug 26 in the morning before our team departs for the Gold Coast at night,” she added.
In October 2017, Yan Yee tested positive for the banned substance, sibutramine, a stimulant commonly found in slimming products, but is on the list of substances banned by the World Anti Doping Agency (Wada).
She committed the offence while taking part in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, last August and the SEA Games Federation (SEAGF) was in the process of retrieving the gold medal won by Yan Yee in the women’s individual 3m springboard event. — Bernama
