The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) on Friday formally suspended Russia’s eight-strong weightlifting team, effectively excluding it from next month’s Rio Olympics, because of doping offences.
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The International Weightlifting Federation has banned the Russian federation and all its weightlifters from the Rio Olympics.
The IWF says that the multiple cases of doping by Russian weightlifters have “seriously damaged” the integrity of the sport.
The eight competition spots have been offered to other countries.
Russia’s Sports Minister says 272 of the country’s athletes have received approval from global sports federations to compete at the Rio Olympics under new restrictions imposed due to the Russian doping scandal.
On July 24, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a meeting of its executive board to discuss possible blanket ban of Russian athletes at the Rio Olympics.
Kashirina and Romanova both had their nominations withdrawn by the Russian Olympic Committee due to prior anti-doping rule violations, added the IWF statement. “We need to fight for those athletes who were disqualified”. In his native Germany, IOC President Thomas Bach is facing increasing criticism for failing to impose a complete ban on Russia’s team.
As the athletes walked across Red Square to meet Putin, some posed for selfies with Vitaly Mutko, whose sports ministry was accused by the World Anti-Doping Agency of orchestrating the doping cover-up.
That formed the basis for the first independent WADA report last November, which led to the current ban on Russian track and field athletes from competing internationally.
Russian entries to the Olympics must still be examined and upheld by an expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“They didn’t let us into the main competition, the Olympics, so we came here to show what we can do”, said the shot put victor, Konstantin Lyadusov.
“They’re now in Portugal”, But said.
The governing body said it would allow the 16 Russian fencers who have qualified for the Rio Games to compete, and it approved four reserves. But it ordered all individual sports federations to apply new criteria to decide which athletes could be allowed to compete.
Rejecting calls for a blanket ban on Russia, the International Olympic Committee decided on July 24 that individual sports federations should investigate athletes implicated in the report and decide who should be excluded.
Rio 2016 gets under way next week.
“As of today there are seven confirmed AAFs (adverse analytical findings) for Russian weightlifters from the combined reanalysis process of London and Beijing, while the second wave of Beijing reanalysis is not yet in a stage when the names and countries involved can be publicly disclosed”.
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Igor Kazikov told state-owned television channel on Friday that every member of the team who had arrived by Thursday has already been tested for doping at least once.
