By Nick Butler at the Main Press Centre in Incheon

Khurshed Beknazarov has registered the first failed doping test of Incheon 2014 ©Incheon 2014Tajikistan footballer Khurshed Beknazarov has become the first athlete at the Asian Games to test positive for banned drugs and be disqualified from the event here. 


The 20-year-old defender tested positive for the stimulant methylhexaneamine, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) revealed today..

An adverse urine sample was collected on September 14 shortly after Tajikistan's 1-0 victory over Singapore, it was announced in a statement issued by Dr M. Jegathesan, chairman of the OCA Medical Committee and Anti-Doping Commission 

Beknazarov played in the first-half of the match and in Tajikistan's subsequent Group C matches against Palestine, which they lost 2-1, and Oman, who they beat 1-0. 

After "due process according to the rules and procedures of the OCA", the athlete has been disqualified from the Games and had his accreditation withdrawn.

The result will now also be forwarded to the athlete's national authorities as well the FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and the World Anti-Doping Agency, for further action.

Beknazarov, who plays for leading Tajik club Regar-TadAZ Tursunzoda, was seen as an important member of the team here, as Tajikistan, ranked 120th in the world, competed in only their second Asian Games after reaching the second round at Bangkok 1998.

The central Asian nation finished second behind Palestine in Group C and are due to face Iraq in the last 16 on Friday (September 26).

But their campaign has now been overshadowed, as Beknazarov becomes the latest athlete to test positive for methylhexaneamine, a product that has produced a increasingly significant number of failed tests in recent years. 

In August, it emerged that the former 400 metres world champion, Botswana's Amantle Montsho, had tested positive for the substance after finishing in fourth place at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on July 29, with the 31-year-old now set to face a two-year ban.

Bostwanan former 400m champion Amantle Montsho is another to have tested positive for Methylhexaneamine in recent weeks ©Getty ImagesBostwanan former 400m champion Amantle Montsho is another to have tested positive for Methylhexaneamine in recent weeks ©Getty Images





There were also three cases involving methylhexanamine at the Winter Olympics in Sochi earlier this year, involving Latvian ice hockey player Vitalijs Pavlovs, Italian bobsleigh brakeman and former decathlete William Frullani, and Germany's former gold medal winning biathlete, Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle.

Originally developed in 1944 as a nasal decongestant pharmaceutical drug, the substance was withdrawn from sale in 1983, only to be reintroduced 20 years later and distributed under a variety of different names as an energy-boosting dietary supplement.

Many experts have questioned how safe it is to take and in 2010 the American military issued a recall of all methylhexanamine-containing products from all military exchange stores worldwide.

A record 1,920 doping tests are due to be carried during Incheon 2014, which is due to end on October 4. 

At Guangzhou 2010 there were six failed doping tests, including two athletes - Qatari discus thrower Ahmed Dheeb and Uzbekistan's under 81kg judoka Shokir Muminov - being stripped of silver medals they had initially won.

Muminov, who had previously won a lightweight bronze at Doha 2006, also tested positive for methylhexaneamine.

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