Russians fail more drug tests

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) yesterday formally suspended Russia’s eightstrong weightlifting team, effectively excluding it from next month’s Rio Olympics, because of doping offences.

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.

Yesterday 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 in a statement. ‘‘Therefore an appropriate sanction was applied in order to preserve the status of the sport.’’

Russia nominated eight weightlifters to compete in Rio but Tatiana Kashirina, who won a silver medal at the London Olympics, and Anastasia Romanova were withdrawn due to previous anti-doping rule violations. Four other Russian lifters were named in the McLaren report.

Bulgaria’s weightlifters had already been excluded from the Olympics last year. - Reuters