Olympic champions, 3 other lifters suspended for doping

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Two Olympic champions and three other weightlifters have been provisionally suspended after retests on their urine samples from the 2012 London Games were shown to be positive for banned substances.

The International Weightlifting Federation announced adverse analytical findings for Ukraine’s Oleksiy Torokhtiy, who won gold at London in the 105-kilogram category, and Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Nurudinov, who won gold in the 105-kilogram category at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The IWF said retests also came back positive for Azerbaijan’s Valentin Hristov, who took bronze in the 56-kilogram class at London, Armenia’s Meline Daluzyan and Mikalai Novikau of Belarus.

“The International Olympic Committee is responsible to decide about any consequences relating to the athletes’ participation in the 2012 London Olympic Games,” the sport’s governing body said on its website Sunday.

“The IWF will not make any further comments on the case until they are closed.”