Yesterday, it was announced at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that the decision made by the Independent Member Federations Sanctioning Panel (IMFSP) to ban the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation from international competition is going to be upheld.
In the IWF’s latest press release covering the matter they write,
“If we are to ensure a culture of clean competition, then we must be prepared to see the most serious of consequences applied in extreme cases. The IWF will now do all it can to help the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation with education and improvement in the field of anti-doping, so that their athletes may make a successful return to competition.”
The CAS also ordered that the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation make a contribution to the IWF for its connection in the proceedings.
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This is huge news because now a handful of top Egyptian weightlifters have no shot of making it to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Back in June of 2017, it was first announced by Reuters that seven Egyptian weightlifters tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. At this time, the Head of the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation, Mahmoud Mahjoub, went on record stating in response to the news, “There is a conspiracy against the Egyptian Federation behind doping cases.”
Fast forward to September of this year, and news dropped that the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation would be barred from attending the 2019 IWF World Championships due to multiple doping violations. After this official announcement, the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation had 21-days to submit an appeal, which they did.
During the appeal process, Mohamed Ehab, one of Egypt’s most accomplished weightlifters, announced his retirement from the sport due to his 2020 Olympic chances being taken away. He has yet to share a post publicly after the latest news.
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As of right now, the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation has not made a public announcement in response to the latest news from the CAS.
Feature image from @orcaformedia Instagram page.