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Challenge to Olympic weightlifting doping sanctions dropped

Irina Nekrassova

FILE In this Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2008 file photo silver medalist Irina Nekrassova from Kazakhstan makes a clean and jerk in the women’s 63kg weightlifting competition at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Kazakhstan says three medalists are among six of its athletes disqualified from previous Olympics over doping. The country’s national Olympic committee said in a statement that weightlifters Irina Nekrasova and Maria Grabovetskaya, who won silver and bronze medals respectively at Beijing 2008, and bronze medal-winning wrestler Aset Mambetov, were retroactively disqualified following retests of drug-test samples they gave at those games. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)

AP

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) Rules slashing Olympic weightlifting places for countries where athletes frequently get caught doping look set to remain in force after a legal challenge was dropped.

The International Weightlifting Federation says officials in Kazakhstan, which faces having its quota cut from eight athletes to two, agreed to drop their challenge.

The IWF says both parties “agreed on a framework for their continued cooperation towards protecting clean athletes and promoting clean sport,” without providing any details of what that involves.

Under pressure from the International Olympic Committee after dozens of positive doping tests threatened weightlifting’s place on the Olympic program, the IWF program restricts quotas for nations with multiple doping offenses.

Kazakhstan was stripped of five gold medals in weightlifting from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics after positive doping tests.

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