Rosmah did not give tainted cordyceps, says Chong Wei

Datuk Lee Chong Wei denies the contaminated cordyceps capsules he consumed, which resulted in a positive doping test, was given to him by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor. – The Malaysian Insider pic, April 29, 2015.Badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei has said the banned drug which earned him an eight-month ban in the sport was not given to him by the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

While he told the Malaysiakini newsportal that Rosmah did not provide him with the cordyceps capsules, which contained the banned anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone, Lee did not want to be drawn further on the subject.

"Yes. I can confirm it is not her. However, I am not at liberty to reveal the name of the person (who gave him the tablets)," the newsportal quoted him as saying today.

The Malaysian Insider reported earlier today that the banned drug was given to the national shuttler by the wife of a "very influential man in Malaysia" quoting a Badminton World Federation (BWF) report.

Since then, speculation has been rife in social media on the identity of the woman.

The news portal also quoted a source as saying that it was the wife of a former top Barisan Nasional politician.

A BWF report said since around 2007 or 2008, the unnamed woman began giving Lee some of her own supply of pure cordyceps capsules, which she bought in raw whole form and had it powdered and made into capsule form at a traditional Chinese medicine outlet in Kuala Lumpur.

The report said the woman in question began to send Lee her cordyceps capsules on a regular basis as a gift. Some of the cordycep capsules were said to have been contaminated with the banned anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone.

"The athlete (Lee) does not wish to identify the lady by name because he fears the consequences for her, if she is associated with his doping case," the 13-page report signed by BWF panel chairman Rune B. Hansen had said.

The report, however, said Lee revealed the woman's name in an “in-camera” session of the hearing, in the presence of the three panel members and a Malaysian lawyer.

"In the opinion of the panel, this strengthened his trustworthiness," the report added.

The report also said that a lawyer, Song Wei Kar, had in March last year visited the shop in Kuala Lumpur where the woman had her supply of pure cordyceps ground and made into capsules. The proprietor confirmed to Song that he had helped the woman by making capsules from her supply of cordyceps.

However, he did not want to give a statement for fear that it would adversely affect his business.

The report said the proprietor acknowledged that his treatment of the cordyceps involved a potential contamination risk.

The former badminton world number one told the anti-doping panel that he had consumed two cordyceps capsules every morning in August 2014, including the morning of the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships.

"How the contamination occurred is not known for sure, but most likely it occurred during the process of grinding the raw cordyceps into powder and putting this powdered cordyceps into the gelatin capsules in the shop in Kuala Lumpur," the report said.

Laboratory analysis also found the presence of dexamethasone "in and/or on the shell of one of the two capsules" that remained in the container of capsules used by Lee from August 2014, the report stated.

The panel held that the most likely reason for Lee's positive testing for the anti-inflammatory drug was because he had consumed cordyceps capsules and that the gelatin capsule shells were contaminated.

- TMI