Four Russian weightlifters, including a world-record holder, have been banned for doping.
The Russian Weightlifting Federation said Tuesday that Alexei Lovchev, who won a world title in Houston in November with a world record total over two lifts, has been banned for four years after a positive test for the banned substance ipamorelin.
His gold medal from the worlds is set to go to Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia, while his world record will be nullified, restoring a 16-year-old mark set by Iranian lifter Hossein Rezazadeh.
Russian weightlifters Alexei Kosov and Olga Afanasyeva were also banned for four years, while former European champion Olga Zubova was given an eight-year ban for a second offense. All three tested positive for steroids.
Zubova, who failed a test at the 2013 world championships, had been competing again at the worlds only one month after her last doping ban expired.
The federation said in a statement that it planned to appeal Lovchev’s ban, claiming a mistake in the laboratory analysis, but did not dispute the other sanctions.
International Weightlifting Federation lawyer Magdolna Trombitas told The Associated Press that the hearings for the four Russian lifters had concluded, but said the federation could not comment publicly on the verdicts until the window for appeals had expired.
Weightlifting has been dogged by persistent doping for years. The entire Bulgarian team has been barred from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after 11 of its lifters received doping bans last year, while recent years have also seen doping cases in leading countries such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and North Korea.
Associated Press
