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Two competitive amateur bodybuilders have died under mysterious circumstances after competing at the joint 2016 Mr. Pakistan and the 11th Annual WBPF South Asian Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Championship held in Lahore, Pakistan on March 30th to April 4, 2016. The details of their demise are vague but speculation has openly hinted that anabolic steroids and/or some other bodybuilding drug may have played a role.
Hamid “Ustaad Gujju” Ali (Pakistan) and Humayun Khurram (Pakistan) both competed in Lahore. And both died within two weeks of stepping on stage.
Ali, a prominent Pakistani bodybuilder who owned a local gym, won the bronze medal in the 2016 Mr. Pakistan bodybuilding contest on Friday, April 1, 2016. By the early hours of Sunday morning, he was dead.
Chaudhry Faheem Nawaz, a close friend and training partner of Ali, briefly discussed Ali's life and death in an interview with The Express Tribune, a major daily English-language newspaper in Pakistan.
“I’m just shocked, and so is everyone else; I’ve just buried him,” Nawaz said. “Ali had started bodybuilding in 1998, and he became Mr Punjab in 2007 but his biggest dream was to win the Mr Pakistan title.
“The cause of his death was a cardiac arrest. I am 100 per cent sure he didn’t do anything illegal or took anything wrong during or before the championship. He had three young daughters; he couldn’t afford to be careless like that.”
Meanwhile, fellow competitor Khurram met the same deadly fate on April 17, 2016. Khurram won the bodybuilding titles of Mr. Lahore, Mr. Punjab and Mr. Pakistan. He celebrated one of his most important victories when he won a gold medal in the 2016 WBPF South Asian Bodybuilding Championship 2016. The cause of death for Khurram was not immediately clear. However, his family claimed he died after his trachea broke while eating a meal.
Steroids were not specifically cited as a contributing factor in the death of either bodybuilder. However, steroids remain the elephant in the room.
The World Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Federation (WBPF) sanctioned the event. WBPF has an anti-doping policy in place that tests for prohibited anabolic steroids. But it is not clear how many of the bodybuilders, if any, were tested at the Pakistan bodybuilding contest.
Sheikh Farooq Iqbal, the president of the Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation, avoided blaming steroids for the deaths. Yet, he also emphasized the need to set up an anti-doping laboratory to facilitate future testing.
Hamid “Ustaad Gujju” Ali (Pakistan) and Humayun Khurram (Pakistan) both competed in Lahore. And both died within two weeks of stepping on stage.
Ali, a prominent Pakistani bodybuilder who owned a local gym, won the bronze medal in the 2016 Mr. Pakistan bodybuilding contest on Friday, April 1, 2016. By the early hours of Sunday morning, he was dead.
Chaudhry Faheem Nawaz, a close friend and training partner of Ali, briefly discussed Ali's life and death in an interview with The Express Tribune, a major daily English-language newspaper in Pakistan.
“I’m just shocked, and so is everyone else; I’ve just buried him,” Nawaz said. “Ali had started bodybuilding in 1998, and he became Mr Punjab in 2007 but his biggest dream was to win the Mr Pakistan title.
“The cause of his death was a cardiac arrest. I am 100 per cent sure he didn’t do anything illegal or took anything wrong during or before the championship. He had three young daughters; he couldn’t afford to be careless like that.”
Meanwhile, fellow competitor Khurram met the same deadly fate on April 17, 2016. Khurram won the bodybuilding titles of Mr. Lahore, Mr. Punjab and Mr. Pakistan. He celebrated one of his most important victories when he won a gold medal in the 2016 WBPF South Asian Bodybuilding Championship 2016. The cause of death for Khurram was not immediately clear. However, his family claimed he died after his trachea broke while eating a meal.
Steroids were not specifically cited as a contributing factor in the death of either bodybuilder. However, steroids remain the elephant in the room.
The World Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Federation (WBPF) sanctioned the event. WBPF has an anti-doping policy in place that tests for prohibited anabolic steroids. But it is not clear how many of the bodybuilders, if any, were tested at the Pakistan bodybuilding contest.
Sheikh Farooq Iqbal, the president of the Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation, avoided blaming steroids for the deaths. Yet, he also emphasized the need to set up an anti-doping laboratory to facilitate future testing.
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