Three Sri Lanka Rugby players admit taking drugs

Ravi Ladduwahetty

The three Sri Lanka national rugby players - Kandy skipper and full back Saliya Kumara,No 8 forward Keith Gurusinghe and Navy prop forward Eranga Swarnatilleke,who have been tested positive for the use of banned drugs at the recently concluded Asian five nation rugby tournament have confessed that they have taken the banned drug.

The drugs that they have taken have contained the banned substance Methyl Hexamamine.

“These three players have confessed that they have taken these drugs and they brought letters to that effect when the inquiry began yesterday morning,” Chairman of the National Anti Doping Agency Dr Geethanjana Mendis told the Daily News last night.

The three-member panel of inquiry comprises Chairman of the National Sports Council and Consultant Surgeon Dr Maiya Gunasekera, Kelaniya University Professor of Medicine Prof Arjuna Mendis, and Colombo University Professor of Pharmacology Professor Rohini Fernandopulle.

The inquiry that was conducted yesterday morning was a fact finding mission to determine what has happened and we will be finishing it within a fortnight. Meanwhile twenty one schoolboy rugby players from both Colombo and Kandy are also being tested whether they have taken banned substances, according to Dr Mendis.

The Colombo schools are Royal, S Thomas’ St Peter’s, Ananda, Nalanda, Thurstan and Isipathana while the Kandy schools are: Trinity, St Anthony’s, Dharmaraja, Kingswood and Vidyartha.