IWF officials wants Bulgarians to be thrown out

Add as a preferred source on Google

Sydney: International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) vice-president Sam Coffa said on Friday he would call for the disgraced Bulgarian lifting team to be thrown out of the Olympic Games.

"Anyone who brings this much darkness to us on a world stage should forfeit the right to be members of our community," Coffa told reporters. Three Bulgarian weightlifters who have won gold, silver and bronze medals between them at these Games have tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide.

Under the IWF's "three-strikes-and-out" rules the entire Bulgarian weightlifting squad should be banned for one year from international competition.

However, the Bulgarians have opted to pay a $ 50,000 fine to have the ban waived for their remaining three "clean" weightlifters to compete. The Romanian weightlifting team did just that earlier this week after two of their athletes failed tests in Sydney bringing their total of failed tests for the past year to three.

International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch told a news conference on Friday the Bulgarian weightlifting federation would pay the fine to the IWF which would control the money and use it to fight doping in Bulgaria.

"We reached an agreement with the national federation that this 50,000 must go back to the country. They must use the 50,000 for the fight against doping," he added.

Coffa, an Australian, said he would urge an IWF executive board meeting later on Friday to refuse to accept the $ 50,000 fine. "It's time for us to get tough and if we have to be bastards we have to be bastards," he said.



(c) Reuters Limited.