Stuff Sports
20 January, 2021, 1:37 pm
From left: Silver medalist Xiaojun Lyu of China, gold medalist Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan and bronze medalist Mohamed Mahmoud of Egypt celebrate on the podium after the Men's 77kg weightlifting competition at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Picture: REUTERS.
Olympic weightlifting champion Nijat Rahimov has been charged with swapping his urine samples in a doping case that could threaten his gold medal.
The International Testing Agency said late Monday (Tuesday NZT) it charged Rahimov and Dumitru Captari of Romania with “an anti-doping rule violation for ‘Urine Substitution’ which would have occurred over a period of time in 2016.”
It is unclear if the allegations include the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where Rahimov took gold with a world-record lift in the men’s 77-kilogram class. Captari competed in the same event.