“CATASTROPHE”
Earlier this year there was an outcry from federations, coaches and athletes when North Korea entered a weightlifting team for an event in Cuba without being independently tested for doping.
Australian coach Paul Coffa reportedly said that their participation in Havana would be “a catastrophe for weightlifting”. In the end, they did not turn up.
The executive board of the IWF, the sport’s governing body, in July changed its rules.
In a statement to AFP, the IWF said it can now “ban from competitions lifters representing countries where doping tests could not be taken by the IWF or any anti-doping organisation with testing authority”.
North Korea won’t be cleaning up at the Olympics next year. A failure to take part in mandatory IWF qualifying events means they will not be in Paris.
The IWF said it had no jurisdiction over which countries take part in the Asian Games because they are administered by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
But it said all North Korean weightlifters had been subjected to at least one doping control in Hangzhou and two had been barred for failing to submit whereabouts reports for the past three months.
North Korea’s anti-doping organisation was declared “non-compliant” and sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2021.
The sanctions include North Korea supposedly not competing under its flag in Hangzhou.
WADA told AFP that the OCA would face “consequences” for allowing the flag to be repeatedly flown at the Games – including when North Korean weightlifters won medals.
WADA said that North Korea was beginning to open up – a necessity if it wants to rejoin the global sporting landscape – and “has now made provision for international testing authorities to be allowed entry” to collect doping samples.
But it warned: “The broader political status of the country means verification and quality control activities are not straightforward.”
Source: CNA
