China, Russia and seven other leading nations have been banned for a year and will miss the International Weightlifting Federation World Championships in Anaheim, Los Angeles as well as next year’s Summer Youth Olympic Games, Junior World Championships, Asian Games and their own Continental Championships.
The bans, due to start in mid‑October, were announced in Bucharest today by the IWF, whose Executive Board made a strong statement of intent in the fight to retain the sport’s Olympic status.
Weightlifting is suffering from what Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), called a "massive doping problem".
Bach has demanded a "satisfactory” report from the IWF, by December, setting out how the governing body intends to deal with doping in future.
The decision to ban these nine is the first sign of a more hardline approach, but it came with a message of encouragement to the worst offenders, who will be given help to change their doping culture.
All nine banned nations had three or more of the 49 positives revealed when the IOC retested samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games in Beijing and London.
The Commission will report to the IWF and, over the next 10 weeks, advise on the report to be submitted to the IOC.
The IWF World Championships will be held in Anaheim in California from November 28 until December 5.
The absence of so many top nations means there will be medal contenders from some unlikely nations, among them Iraq, Cuba, Tunisia and Turkmenistan.
Source: www.insidethegames.biz
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