Singaporean Para-sprinter Mohammad Khairi Bin Ishak has been given a four-year ban after he tested positive for a banned substance ©Singapore Sports Council

Singaporean Para-sprinter Mohammad Khairi Bin Ishak has been given a four-year ban after he tested positive for a banned substance prior to the Commonwealth Games here.

Ishak was due to compete in the men’s T47 100 metres final at Gold Coast 2018 yesterday but was ruled out because of the positive test, Singapore team officials have said.

Reports initially suggested the 28-year-old failed for prohibited steroid methandienone at the Games.

It has since been clarified that Ishak, who won two medals at last year's World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, tested positive in an out-of-competition test on March 12.

He has been provisionally suspended since April 6 and was ordered to appear for a hearing in front of a three-man panel at the Anti-Doping Singapore offices on Thursday (April 12).

The panel decided to impose a four-year suspension on Ishak, ruling him out of a possible appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

He will not be free to return to competition until March 2022.

Ishak told the Straits Times he was “surprised and confused” by the positive test, blaming a contaminated protein whey isolate supplement he had taken as the reason.

CGF officials have insisted there have not been any positive drugs tests during Gold Coast 2018 ©Getty Images
CGF officials have insisted there have not been any positive drugs tests during Gold Coast 2018 ©Getty Images

"We were informed by Anti-Doping Singapore that Mohammad Khairi Ishak has been issued a provisional suspension as a result of a violation charge, hence ruling him out from participating at the Commonwealth Games," said Mark Chay, Team Singapore's Chef de Mission for Gold Coast 2018.

"We wish to remind all athletes to play a part in clean sport, stay drug-free and to respect the rules in place."

There have not been any positive tests announced by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) at Gold Coast 2018.

CGF officials have also refused to reveal details of how many athletes have been tested here.

The drugs-testing programme at these Games is being overseen by a "high-integrity partnership" between the CGF, Gold Coast 2018 and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA).

ASADA chief executive David Sharpe revealed here earlier this week that three Australian athletes had been banned from competing at the Games after they failed pre-event tests.

Sharpe said they featured in a group of "less than 20" athletes from around the Commonwealth to be banned before the event started.

He added that 371 tests were conducted on the back of intelligence reports in the three months preceding the Games.