Sports42 FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016 4 champions fail doping retests

BUDAPEST: Four Olympic weightlifting gold Maneza (63kg) and retests. “We will conduct our own investiga- Yauheni Zharnasek of . medalists from have been provi- (75kg). tion of the possible misconduct of our ath- The IWF said more information about the sionally suspended after their doping sam- If all four are disqualified, Kazakhstan letes and violation of anti-doping rules,” the IOC retesting of samples taken at the 2008 ples were positive in retests from the 2012 would drop from 12th to 23rd in the 2012 committee said, adding that the four lifters Games, where 10 cases were “pre- Games. The four champions were medal standings. have been suspended last Friday. sumed” positives that required B sample among 10 athletes from five former Soviet Kazakhstan’s Olympic committee, which Three more medalists tested positive: analyses, would be released “as soon as pos- countries whose samples revealed banned revealed earlier that its athletes recorded five ’s Apti Aukhadov, who won silver at sible.” The 20 weightlifting cases were among substances, the International Weightlifting positives in retests from Beijing and London, 85kgs, Ukraine’s Yuliya Kalina, bronze at 55 total positives which the IOC has reported Federation said late Wednesday. said on Thursday that the four lifters’ partici- 58kgs, and Belarus’ Marina Shkermankova, so far, including 32 from Beijing and 23 from The were men’s 94-kilogram pation at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics bronze at 69kgs. Completing the group of London. The IOC is retesting samples to catch champion , and women’s gold “remains an open question” pending an IWF doping positives were Boyanka Kostova from cheats who might be competing at the Rio medalists (53kg), Maiya investigation and the completion of sample Azerbaijan, and Dzina Sazanavets and Olympics. —AP

KOC turns down banned Park’s Rio appeal

SEOUL: The Korea Olympic Committee has turned down Park Tae-hwan’s appeal to overturn a controversial doping suspen- sion, leaving the swimmer’s hopes of competing at the Rio Games in the hands of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The former Olympic champion has already served an 18- month ban imposed by swimming’s world governing body FINA but is fighting to repeal a KOC regulation that imposed an additional three-year suspension, effectively ruling him out of Rio. The 26-year-old South Korean lodged a case with CAS but had hoped the KOC might re-consider its hard-line posi- tion before going to trial. The KOC poured cold water on such hopes today, saying the rule would remain in force. “The regulation for the selection of national team represen- tatives was made with the aim of demanding a high level of morality of our national team athletes and considering the dignity required of a public figure,” the KOC said in a state- ment carried on South Korean television. “Doping is against the fair play spirit, a basic requirement of athletes, and we decided that a rigorous response was needed for educational purposes to young athletes.” Park, who won gold in the 400 metres freestyle and silver in the 200 at the 2008 Beijing Games, was expected to respond to the KOC’s ruling at a media conference later on Thursday. The first Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal, Park’s breakthrough in the Beijing pool made him a : In this Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 file photo, Russia’s pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva attends a press conference huge celebrity at home and a magnet for corporate sponsors. in Moscow, Russia. Russia will learn today if its athletes will be allowed to compete at the Rio de Janeiro He finished runner-up in both the 200 and 400 at the Olympics, as more damning evidence of doping irregularities pour in. — AP London Games four years ago but his reputation was shat- tered when he tested positive for testosterone ahead of the 2014 . Park attributed the failed test to an injec- Four Russian track and field tion he received at a local clinic, where he said he was being treated for a skin complaint. Despite the KOC ban, Park entered national swimming trials in April and won all four of stars who could miss Rio his races in times quick enough for Olympic qualification. Critics of the KOC’s anti-doping regulation say it punishes an MOSCOW: governing CHICHEROVA, THE VETERAN the semi-finals of his first Olympics last athlete twice for the same offence. CAS has previously struck body IAAF meets today to decide if Russia, Anna Chicherova, 33, is the defending time round in London. “Nothing worked out double-barrelled punishments for athletes banned for suspended in November over a report on high jump Olympic champion, having won out for me in London,” Shubenkov told doping-related offences. In 2011, the Swiss-based tribunal state-sponsored doping, will be allowed to gold at the London Games after clearing AFP. “Things should be different now.” ruled that the International Olympic Committee’s ‘ Rule’, compete at the Rio Olympics. If the IAAF 2.05 metres on her second attempt. Shubenkov, who clocked 12.98 sec- which banned athletes serving suspensions of at least six rules to uphold Russia’s suspension, some The two-time Olympic medallist admit- onds to win gold in the 110m hurdles at months from competing at the next Games, violated of its key track and field stars will miss the ted last month that one of her samples the 2015 World Championships, trains at a own statutes.—Reuters Games. from the 2008 Beijing Games-where she run-down facility in his Siberian home- won bronze-showed traces of a banned town of Barnaul even though he has been ISINBAYEVA, THE POLE VAULT TSARINA substance. “For me it’s the most complete offered to relocate to Los Angeles. The grande dame of Russian athletics, shock,” Chicherova told AFP about her The exclusion of Russian athletes from star pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva has her positive doping test, vowing to clear her Rio would see Shubenkov become the sights set on ending her stellar career with name. “I can’t explain how it could have second member of his family to miss the a third Olympic gold medal at her fourth happened.” Russia’s Olympic Committee chance of Olympic glory. and final games in Rio. (ROC) said that 14 Russian athletes had His mother, Soviet heptathlete Natalya The pole vault tsarina, the first woman failed doping tests during the re-testing of Shubenkova, was sidelined from the 1984 to clear the 5-metre bar, has not been samples from the Beijing Games. Los Angeles Olympics after the Soviet implicated in the doping scandals that Chicherova told AFP she had turned to Union and its Communist allies boycotted have engulfed many of her teammates. a lawyer who would defend her interests the Games-a tit-for-tat move for the West’s Isinbayeva, 34, has furiously lobbied until the B-sample results come through. snub of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. against Russia’s suspension, pleading in a The International Olympic Committee letter to IAAF for clean Russian athletes (IOC) said last month that new samples KUCHINA, THE FUTURE OF RUSSIAN ATHLETICS not to be punished for the cheating of taken during the 2012 London Games High jumper Mariya Kuchina, 23, has an others and complaining that only Russia have returned positive for eight Russian impressive medal collection-golds from was being sanctioned for an international athletes. Chicherova told TASS news the 2015 World Championships and the GWANGJU: File photo taken on April 25, 2016 shows problem. “Athletes from another country agency earlier this month that her B-sam- 2014 World Indoor Championships, and a ’s Park Tae-Hwan competing in the final of the whose doping tests are negative have the ple from the London Games had turned silver from the 2014 European champi- men’s 1500 metre freestyle during the 88th Dong-A swim- right to compete at the Olympics,” out of be negative. onships-but has yet to compete in an ming competition in the southern city of Gwangju on April Isinbayeva told reporters last month. . 25, 2016. South Korea’s national Olympic committee said “But I am not allowed even though I SHUBENKOV, THE SIBERIAN SENSATION At the 2015 World Championships yesterday its ban on disgraced swim star Park Tae-Hwan am in the same situation. This is discrimi- The Rio Games could offer redemption Kuchina defeated her more senior com- competing at the Rio Olympics would stand, rejecting the nation.” for 25-year-old world champion hurdler petitors, including Anna Chicherova, who swimmer’s emotional plea for reinstatement. — AFP Sergey Shubenkov, who was eliminated in walked away with a bronze medal. —AFP