3 champs test positive

Three Chinese Olympic champions in women’s weightlifting from the 2008 Beijing Games have failed doping tests conducted eight years later, the sport’s governing body IWF said Wednesday.

The trio were among 15 weightlifters who tested positive for a variety of banned substances after the International Olympic Committee retested samples using methods which were more advanced than the ones available at the time.

The 15 have all been provisionally suspended, the Budapest- based IWF said.

The gold medalists were Chen Xiexia, who won the 48- kilogram category, Liu Chunghong ( 69) and Cao Lei ( 75).

Eleven weightlifters from the Beijing Games had already been suspended in July after testing positive.