Dope cloud as Kazakh denies Lyu
Print Edition
NIJAT Rahimov of Kazakhstan was a surprise gold medalist in weightlifting on Wednesday, but immediately faced questions over doping.
Rahimov, who only returned from a doping ban last year, and the rest of Kazakhstan’s team had almost been excluded from the Rio Olympics entirely after repeated failures in retests of doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The country stands to lose five gold medals from those Games.
Kazakhstan was allowed to compete because those doping cases were not fully processed in time for the Games.
In a sport in crisis over doping, Rahimov’s world record-breaking performance in the 77-kilogram class on Wednesday is unlikely to silence the critics, not least bronze medalist Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt, who said he found Rahimov’s dramatic improvement since his ban suspicious. Rahimov was banned for two years in 2013 after failing a test while competing for Azerbaijan.
China’s Lyu Xiaojun had been the favorite to retain the gold he won in 2012 and began to celebrate prematurely after his final lift, stripping to the waist in front of the crowd. But Rahimov had other plans, audaciously moving up 12kg for his next attempt at the clean and jerk to 214kg, breaking a 15-year-old world record.
That gave him a total of 379kg, level with Lyu but enough for Rahimov to take gold because he weighed less.
Earlier, China’s Xiang Yanmei took gold in the women’s 69kg class, adding to the world titles she won in 2013 and 2015.
Silver went to Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Zhapparkul, while Egypt’s Sara Ahmed won bronze, becoming the first woman from an Arab country to win an Olympic weightlifting medal.
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