Weightlifting: Two former senior IWF officials get lifetime bans for anti-doping rule violations

Tamas Ajan joined the International Weightlifting Federation in 1976 and has served as president for the past 20 years

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.

"Given the seriousness of the ADRVs and the length of time over which they were committed, the sole arbitrator found lifetime ineligibility to be the appropriate sanction."

In June 2020, an independent report found "corruption at the highest level" in international weightlifting and that Ajan operated a "culture of fear".