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Inner Mongolia is not pulling out of the National Games despite the fact one of their athletes, shooter Li Jie, tested positive for a banned substance.
Instead, the team has vowed to carry out further investigations and impose strict punishment on her if the case proves to be true.
"The Inner Mongolia delegation has always vowed to fight against doping and there is no culture of taking drugs in the delegation, so we were very surprised about Li's case," Bi Lifu, the media officer of the delegation, told China Daily. "Such individual cases don't affect the whole team, so we won't pull out of the Games."
Li, 21, tested positive for propranolol, a banned beta blocker which is used to prevent trembling. According to experts, the prescription drug is for special heart diseases and is difficult to take by mistake. She finished fourth in the women's 10m air pistol and 49th in the 25m pistol at the Games.
The Games' organizing committee announced yesterday that Li's shooting results had been annulled.
"The urine samples were sent for tests after the competition on Oct 18 and the results came out yesterday (Oct 21)," the deputy head of the competition committee, Sun Yuanfu, said.
Li's doping case is the second to arise at the National Games in Shandong province. Guo Linna, a rower from Henan, tested positive for a steroid on Oct 18. The whole Henan rowing team pulled out of the competition the next day to show "determination in the fight against doping".
Propranolol was also discovered at last year's Beijing Olympics when a DPR Korean shooter, Kim Jong-su, was stripped of a silver medal in the men's 50m pistol and a bronze in the 10m air pistol.
Taking drugs is rare in Chinese shooting and Li's case has irritated the sport's senior China officials.
"We are very furious about this positive case and we will punish her severely," said Gao Zhidan, director of China's Shooting Administrative Center. "Although there have been a few doping cases involving foreign shooters, I have never seen such a case in China. Such an action pollutes the clean atmosphere of shooting here and damages the sport's image.
"We have to investigate how she got the drug. The shooting administrative center will impose a ban on her. Any coaches and officials implicated will be punished as well."
The Inner Mongolia team also said it would mete out punishment after its investigations had been completed.
"We are investigating whether Li took the drugs purposely or was guided by her coach," said Li Zhiyou, deputy chef de mission of the Inner Mongolia team. "Before the Games opened, all officials and athletes of our team signed the anti-doping responsibility book. If the investigation proves true we will punish all the people responsible for it."
Questions:
1. What is the drug propranolol used to prevent?
2. Who tested positive for steroid use?
3. Before the Games opened, what did officials and athletes sign, according to Li Zhiyou?
Answers:
1. Trembling.
2. Guo Linna.
3. The anti-doping responsibility book.
（英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.