Five Vietnamese athletes failed doping tests and will be stripped of their nine medals, including five golds, won at the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Vietnam in May last year, the Southeast Asian Sports Council announced on Thursday.

These athletes, all in track and field, are Quach Thi Lan, Khuat Phuong Anh, Vu Ngoc Ha, Hoang Thi Ngoc, and Le Ngoc Phuc.

Following the forfeiture of the gold medals, the Vietnamese athletics team will see their gold medal tally down to 17 from 22.

The doping offenders will also be subject to a four-year ban.

The five Vietnamese athletes explained that they had used a type of supplement without knowing it contained banned substances.

Prior to the announcement of the positive doping cases, Vietnam had eliminated these five from a list of athletes eligible to compete at the 2022 National Sports Games and the 32nd SEA Games, which is scheduled to take place in Cambodia from May 5 to 17.

Aside from them, five others from Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia will get their medals at the 31st SEA Games revoked following their positive doping test results, according to the list of ten doping offenders released by the Southeast Asian Sports Council the same day.

Last year, the 31st SEA Games was hosted by Hanoi and 11 neighboring provinces and cities from May 12 to 23 with 40 sports featuring 526 events for over 10,000 athletes, officials, and referees from 11 Southeast Asian countries. 

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