BUCHAREST, Romania: Russia and China are among nine countries that have received one-year bans from all international weightlifting competitions, ruling them out of the upcoming world championships.
The 2017 IWF World Championships will be held between November 28 and December 5 in the city of Anaheim near Los Angeles.
The bans were slapped on the national federations of the nine countries after their athletes were found to have produced three or more anti-doping rule violations (ADRV) in the combined re-analysis process of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
The federations other than 2008 Olympic Games host China and Russia that are also under the cosh are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine.
The bans follow an executive board meeting of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) over the weekend in the Romanian capital where anti-doping efforts dominated the agenda.
The decisions are the outcome of an investigation into the matter conducted by the Tbilisi Commission, appointed by the IWF board in April. The bans take effect in mid-October.
IWF president Tamas Ajan said: “At the IWF we have made it clear that the incidence of doping in some areas is totally unacceptable and that our members have a responsibility to ensure clean sport in their countries. If they do not fulfil their responsibilities to ensure their lifters are clean then they will lose their right to participate. But we will not turn our backs on them; we will continue to work with them, WADA and their National Anti-Doping Agencies to support their anti-doping activities and help make cultural change.
“There is no doubt that the IWF Anti-Doping Programme has advanced enormously since Beijing 2008 and London 2012. The culture of the sport has already changed in many places over the last ten years. But we are committed to doing more and we will do more. Through our Clean Sport Commission we are not just looking at how we overcome current issues but how we can innovate with new testing and anti-doping measures for the benefit of all sport.”
The suspension was met with shock by Russia, which has been accused of widespread state-sponsored doping in recent years, AFP reports.
“I don’t see the good in this decision and I don’t understand the point,” Russian team coach Nikolaï Kolesnikov told R-Sport agency.
“We have changed the executives of the federation. The officials who sinned are no longer there. We exist under the rules, we do 60 checks a week. Our guys have prepared themselves very seriously, and now they have tears in their eyes.”
Chinese weightlifters will also miss the 2018 Asian Games as a consequence of the doping clampdown, the newswire further reports.
Russia was also banned from the weightlifting event at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Context and timeline of the ‘Tbilisi Decision’
On 22 June 2016 the IWF executive board outlined a policy related to the results of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 reanalysis, the so called “Tbilisi Decision”:
“IWF Executive Board has decided that National Federations (NFs) confirmed to have produced 3 or more Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRV) in the combined re-analysis process of the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games shall be suspended for 1 year”
Before the Olympic Games in Rio, only two of the reanalysis cases were closed by IOC. The last IOC decisions became final on 28 August.
In the meantime, three countries filed appeals with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the EB’s decision of 22 June 2016. CAS rendered its award in March 2017 on which the IWF EB immediately started its follow-up measures.
During its meeting of 2 April in Bangkok, Thailand, the executive board outlined the principles of the procedure to be applied in respect of potential breaches of the Policy and decided to appoint a Committee composed of three Members to investigate any potential breach of the policy and make recommendations to the executive board for decision.
The commission conducted a thorough investigation discussed during its meetings of 9 June and 9 September. The outcome was presented to the IWF EB and approved unanimously Saturday.
