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Bulgaria weighed down by drug scandal and 'defectors' striking gold
SYDNEY, Oct 1 (AFP) - Superpower Bulgaria were the big losers of an Olympic weightlifting competition dragged down by doping positives and veiled accusations of gold medallists possessing 'supernatural' powers. Bulgaria, with more than 1,000 medals in Olympic Games and World Championships to their credit, were unceremoniously kicked out of the Sydney competition after three of their lifters tested positive for a banned diuretic. Three "clean" athletes were prevented from competing by the International Weightlifting Federation's (IWF) blanket ban but there was a silver lining for Alan Tsagaev. He finished runner up in the 105kg division just hours after being cleared to compete by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The court ruled that the IWF's decision to throw out the whole Bulgarian squad had no legal basis. The ruling exposed loopholes in the IWF's bizarre "three strikes and you're out" rule and a crazier sub-clause which allows countries to pay a 50,000 dollar fine to escape a ban. The Romanian Olympic Committee took advantage of the clause to have their "clean" lifters re-instated after the "three strikes" rule had been activated following a pre-Olympic drugs blitz by the IWF nabbed three Romanians for taking anabolic steroids. "This rule really should have been reviewed a few years ago but this is the first time we have been caught out," said Sam Coffa, vice-president of the IWF. "The drug positives were a disaster for the sport, and we had to take decisive action. But I don't think this will affect weightlifting's place on the Olympic programme." The scandal has caused serious harm to Bulgaria, which has been re-building the sport since two weightlifting gold medallists tested positive at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The three athletes who were stripped of their medals in Sydney, Izabela Dragneva, the first woman to win an OIympic weightlifting gold, silver winner Ivan Ivanov and bronze medallist Sevdalin Minchev, all protested their innocence saying that they unwittingly took a medicine which contained a diuretic. Coaching guru Ivan Abadjiev, who has set scores of champions on the path to glory, took full responsibility for the error and quit the sport's top job. Bulgarian weightlifting under Abadjiev has established a factory line of top lifters many of whom are now competing for other nations. Abadjiev looked on in Sydney as two of his proteges, Halil Mutlu and Nikolay Pechalov, won gold for Turkey and Croatia respectively. Lifter of the century Naim Suleymanoglu, who failed in his bid to win a record fourth straight weightlifting gold at the Sydney Olympics, was also coached by Abadjiev before defecting to Turkey in 1986. Bulgaria won a single gold in the men's competition through Galabin Boevski in the 69kg division. A further twist to Bulgaria's tale of Olympic woe was the revelation that Iran's two surprise gold medallists, Hossein Tavakoli and "the world's strongest man" Hossein Rezazadeh, are trained in Teheran by a Bulgarian coach. Ecstatic Iranian weightlifting officials said that the Bulgarian would have his contract extended until the 2004 Athens Games following the gold medal successes. Germany's Ronny Weller, who added an Olympic silver medal to the gold he won in Barcelona, was stunned by the world record breaking power of superheavyweight winner Rezazadeh. The Iranian was such an unknown, he said, that he could not remember his name or his face. "I do not want to say too much about him and his victory," said Weller, after watching Rezazadeh set world records in the snatch and overall total. "Iranians keep coming out of nowhere. It is like a movie by (Steven) Spielberg." Under fire weightlifting officials were thankful for the towering triumphs of Greek superstars Pyrros Dimas and Akakios Kakiasvilis, who both picked up their third consecutive gold medals. The lifters confirmed they would go for four-in-a-row on home soil at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the drawing power of the two showmen of the sport will kill any suggestions that weightlifting be dropped from the Olympics.
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