Japan yesterday became the latest nation to report a drug failure among its Asian Games hopefuls when a 58-year-old snooker player tested positive for anabolic steroids.

The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) said Junsuke Inoue, set to be the oldest Japanese competitor at Bangkok, would be banned for two years from any JOC-sanctioned event.

All 635 Japanese athletes bound for Bangkok underwent doping tests on October 1st and traces of methyltestosterone, a male hormone with similar effects to testosterone, were found in Inoue's urine sample, the JOC said.

The drug cost Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson his 100-metre gold medal and world record at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Inoue admitted he had taken the product to enhance his energy level.