Doping: World record weightlifter Lin banned for eight years

[November 15, 2018]    ZURICH (Reuters) - Taiwan's Lin Tzu-chi, a former weightlifting world record holder, has been banned for eight years for a doping offense by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the tribunal said in a statement on Thursday.

Taiwan's Lin Tzu Chi is pictured with her gold medal after setting a new world record weight of 145kg in the women's 63kg clean and jerk weightlifting competition at the Moonlight Festival Garden during the 17th Asian Games in Incheon September 23, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed

Lin, who broke two world records in the women's 63 kg category at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, was initially banned for two years by Taiwan's Olympic Committee after a positive test for steroids in June 2016, CAS said.

However, CAS said it had accepted an appeal from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which wanted the ban increased as it was the 30-year-old Lin's second doping violation.

"The sole arbitrator. ... found that (Lin Tzu Chi) had indeed committed a second anti-doping rule violation and determined that she should receive an eight-year ban," CAS said in a statement.

Lin set her world records in the clean and jerk and overall lift at the Asian Games in Incheon. She hoisted 145 kg with her final lift, adding 2 kg to the previous record, which gave her an overall total of 261 kg and another world record.

China's Deng Wei overhauled those records at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where Lin, who also tested positive for a banned substance in 2010, withdrew hours before the event.

(Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by John O'Brien)

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