Five Russian weightlifters handed anti-doping suspensions after historical investigation

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has announced that five Russian weightlifters have been provisionally suspended for potential doping violations after data was received from a Moscow testing laboratory.

The names of the five athletes were released by the IWF, confirming that 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Ruslan Albegov, 2012 women's world champion Tima Turieva were among the athletes suspended. Also on that list are fellow competitors David Bedzhanyan, Oleg Chen and Egor Klimonov.

The governing body said the suspensions were handed out "in view of the severity of the asserted anti-doping rule violations and compelling nature of the evidence" it received from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

IWF president Tamas Ajan issued a statement, saying: “The IWF regrets these additional cases of doping in our sport from some years ago. We note without any satisfaction that weightlifting was far from the only sport to have been affected by the extensive and historical Russian doping revealed by whistleblowers, the media and WADA.

“We can be satisfied, however, that the IWF has shown once again our determination to protect clean sport and promote clean athletes. We have not shown any hesitation in taking the right decisions.

“While the IWF has done so much to begin a bright new chapter for our sport, we will also do what we can to pursue historical cases of doping, especially when such evidence is provided by partners like WADA.

“The IWF is grateful to WADA and the ITA for the very detailed and extensive work carried out in preparing the materials and prosecuting the cases arising out of the investigations into the Russian doping scheme.”