Doping: Seven more Russian weightlifters banned

[August 17, 2019]    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Another seven Russian weightlifters have been provisionally suspended for doping violations, joining five compatriots already banned from the sport earlier this week.

Dmitry Lapikov of Russia competes in the men's 105kg weightlifting clean and jerk competition at the World Weightlifting Championships in Goyang, north of Seoul, November 29, 2009. Lapikov took the overall silver medal at the event. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won/File Photo

The International Weightlifting Federation said on Friday the seven had been charged based on data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.

The announcement come days after the IWF said five other Russian weightlifters had been provisionally suspended.

The latest batch include Dmitry Lapikov and Nadezhda Evstyukhina, who had Olympic medals from the 2008 Beijing Games stripped for doping.

"There is no certainty that there won't be more suspensions," the president of Russia's weightlifting federation, Maxim Agapitov, told RIA news agency.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is in the process of analyzing data retrieved earlier this year from the Moscow laboratory and submitting the results to international sports federations.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Ian Ransom)

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