Russian lifters banned

Last month, the IWF said its Executive Board had decided to suspend for a year national federations that produced three or more doping violations in re-tests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games - made possible by improved detection techniques. It named Russia, along with Kazakhstan and Belarus, but said it would await confirmation of the positive tests from the International Olympic Committee before implementing the suspension. 

On Friday, it noted that Russian competitors had been named in the McLaren Report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that exposed evidence of state-backed cheating in Russia. “The integrity of the weightlifting sport has been seriously damaged on multiple times and levels by the Russians,” the IWF said.