Two former senior IWF officials get lifetime ban

Two former senior officials of the International Weightlifting Federation have been given lifetime bans for anti-doping rule violations.

Former IWF president Tamas Ajan, of Hungary, and Romania’s Nicu Vlad were handed the punishments after a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearing.

Vlad is a former head coach of the Romanian Weightlifting Federation and former vice-president of the IWF anti-doping commission.

Ajan left the IWF in April 2020.

He joined the organisation in 1976, serving 24 years as the general secretary and 20 as president before resigning.

A Cas statement said it received requests for arbitration of anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) against Ajan and Vlad in December 2021 “in relation to their alleged involvement in tampering with the doping control process and complicity in anti-doping rule violations involving multiple weightlifting athletes over a period of many years since 2012”.

It added: “The ADRVs asserted against both former IWF officials were proven to the comfortable satisfaction of the Cas anti-doping division sole arbitrator. -BBC