The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) decided to ban Bulgaria from the 2016 Rio Olympics at its Executive Board meeting in Houston yesterday, due to anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) committed by 11 Bulgarian weightlifters back in March. ‘Due to the special Anti-Doping Policy for Rio 2016, the Executive Board confirmed that Bulgaria is not eligible to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games and decided to withdraw one quota from Romania, due to the multiple positive cases in the qualification period’, read a statement. ‘The Executive Board took the decision that Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan cannot participate at the 2015 IWF World Championships Houston, USA since their athletes did not submit their whereabouts information in ADAMS.’

As reported by the Sports Integrity Initiative yesterday, 25 weightlifters have reported ADRVs so far this year – 17 involving the anabolic agent stanozolol, which includes the 11 Bulgarians. Stanozolol is an anabolic agent prohibited under section S1.1 of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List.

The IWF reported an additional adverse analytical finding (AAF) for stanozolol yesterday, which takes the number of weightlifters reporting an AAF during the past month to eight. Hungarian Vajk Károly Pócza has been suspended in view of a potential ADRV.