(ATR) Egypt is out of the 2019 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships.
The decision to ban the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation was tied to seven positive doping tests, including minors as young as 14, at the 2016 Youth African Championships.
The IWF’s Independent Member Federation Sanctions Panel (IMFSP) made the decision, which comes on the eve of the start of the world championships in Pattaya, Thailand.
"Well done to the IWF," USA Weightlifting CEO Phil Andrews tells Around the Rings, "the independent panel was put there to remove conflict of interest. Holding a nation with an Executive Board vote to account shows precisely why this panel is required."
The Egyptian team, including at least two medal contenders, learned about the ban while training in Azerbaijan, according to Egyptian website Ahram Online. They will return to Egypt rather than travel to Thailand.
Egypt joins host Thailand in missing out on the world championships. Thailand withdrew from all 2020 Olympic weightlifting and qualification in early March because of a number of doping violations. The country is still hosting the World Championships despite pulling its athletes out of the event.
Shortly after Thailand’s withdrawal, the IOC Executive Board, citing significant progress by the IWF in efforts to clean up the sport, decided to lift the threat of cutting it from the program of the 2024 Games in Paris. The IOC has been concerned for years about chronic doping problems that have disqualified dozens of medalists from Olympic Games and other multi-sport events as well as IWF championships.
In 2017 nine countries, including China and Russia, served one year bans from weightlifting competitions for repeated doping violations.
It is expected that Egypt will appeal its ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Record Field for World Championships
The IWF on Tuesday announced a record field for the world championships.
Subject to final verification, the entry list includes 734 athletes from 105 countries. Efforts by the IWF to promote the sport among women athletes also appears to be bearing fruit, with 339 women joining the 395 men in the field.
The event is the latest test for Team USA in rebuilding its weightlifting program after a long fallow period.
The United States took home five medals at the Pan American Games in Lima earlier this summer, punctuated by Sarah Robles winning the gold medal in the +87kg category and becoming the first American woman to become Pan Am champion since 2003.
It was the most medals won by the USA since the 1999 Games. Half of the team of 10 that participated in Lima ended up on the podium.
Junior world champion Kate Nye, who took home bronze in the 76kg category in Lima while breaking a US record in the process, may be able to win her first world title at the senior level in Thailand, according to Andrews.
"We are looking at potentially our best World Championship in decades," he tells ATR.
"We have a number of athletes who are in the fight for medals. This bodes well for 2020 as we attempt our best Games in 60 years. It will not be easy but we have a shot."
Written by Gerard Farek
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