A five person independent Panel is to consider whether sanctions should be imposed on the Romanian Weightlifting Federation (FRH), after four anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) involving Romanian lifters were discovered in a year. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced that the International Testing Agency (ITA) has completed reanalysis of samples provided by Gabriel Sincraian and Razvan Martin, both of whom returned adverse analytical findings (AAFs) for metabolites of stanozolol and metenolone due to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) reanalysis of samples given at the London 2012 Olympics.

The IWF’s List of sanctions reveals that a two year ban has been imposed on Sincraian, which means he will remain banned until 12 August 2026. Sincraian was already subject to an eight year ban for a second doping offence, running until 12 August 2024, due to an ADRV involving exogenous testosterone. His initial two year ban for an ADRV involving stanozolol expired on 23 September 2015, allowing him to return his second AAF at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Martin also previously served a two year ban expiring on 11 April 2015 for an ADRV involving stanozolol, after which he won two Silver medals in the -77kg categories at the Split 2017 and Bucharest 2018 European Weightlifting Championships. The IWF lists his ban as running from 15 November 2025 until 14 November 2027, which suggests that it may have also been imposed on top of another sanction, although none is listed. 

Under Article 12.3.2 of the IWF’s Anti-Doping Policy, if four or more ADRVs are detected by an anti-doping organisation other than the Member Federation (the FRH) in a 12 month period, the IWF can impose a ban of up to four years on the Member Federation concerned, and/or a fine. The policy was introduced after the Seoul 1988 Olympics in an attempt to encourage IWF Member Federations to police against doping. 

The IWF statement doesn’t clarify which other two lifters have been sanctioned to take Romania’s tally up to four ADRVs in 12 months. It is debatable as to whether Article 12 is applicable at all. Sincraian and Martin’s sanctions result from reanalysis of samples taken in 2012 and since the FRH didn’t conduct the reanalysis, there is little that it could have done differently in order to effectively report the sanctions within the past 12 months.

The IWF statement outlines that the IWF ‘has delegated the disciplinary proceedings related to multiple ADRVs under Article 12 of the Anti-Doping Policy to an Independent Member Federations Sanctioning Panel, in order to ensure a fair, rigorous and independent process’. This body is composed of five members from outside of the IWF, who must now consider whether to sanction the FRH.

The creation of the Independent Member Federation Sanctioning Panel (IMFSP) was approved by the IWF Executive Board in 2018. This was before Tamas Ajan’s April 2020 resignation as IWF President, following serious corruption allegations exposed by investigate journalists in January last year. It is understood to consist of Richard Young, Ulrich Haas, Andrea Gotzmann, Andrew Pipe and Ben Sandford, and its creation was supported at the IWF’s 2019 Executive Board meeting.

The IWF doesn’t mention another aspect of its rules that could be used to sanction the FRH. At its 2016 Executive Board meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, the IWF decided that Member Federations which reported three or more ADRVs from reanalysis of samples taken at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics would be suspended for one year. 

Three Romanian lifters have been sanctioned from reanalysis of London 2012 samples alone. Reanalysis of Florin Ionut Croitoru’s London 2012 sample also resulted in an ADRV for dehydrochloromethyltestosterone (DHCMT), metenolone, and stanozolol that is listed on the IWF’s website. There is therefore an argument that Romania should be suspended for one year under the Tbilisi rule, however this isn’t mentioned in the IWF statement.