LAHORE
\nThe Pakistan Weightlifting Federation faces a lengthy ban from the International Weightlifting Federation after six of its weightlifters, including Talha, were provisionally suspended by the International Testing Agency over doping offences.
\nTalha and two others, abubakar Gahni and Sharjeel but, were due to take part in this year\u2019s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
\nThey are now out of the Games, due to begin in July, and their coach Irfan Butt: the son of PWF president Hafiz Imran Butt also facing suspension.
\nIt\u2019s taken barely nine months for the bubble to burst and now Pakistani weightlifters face long ban for doping as suspended previously.
\nTalha Talib\u2019s sensational performance at last year\u2019s Tokyo Olympics, where he finished fifth in the 67kg class, had provided hopes of a golden future for Pakistan\u2019s weightlifters.
\nBut now a doping scandal threatens Pakistan\u2019s international weightlifting future.
\nThere was no official statement by the PWF on Friday.
\nThere was also no reaction from the Pakistan Olympic Association (POF), which in the past suspended the Athletics Federation of Pakistan after three Athletes tested positive for at the South Asian Games in 2019.
\nPOF has made committee to probe doping cases of national Kabaddi team but the PWF is a real test case for the country\u2019s Olympic body, which has very friendly terms with PWF chief Imran.
\nAt the Olympics, Imran coached Talha, who tested positive for norandrosterone, a banned steroid, twice within 12 days last year.
\nThe first test was on November 29 with the second during the IWF World Championships in Uzbekistan, where he won bronze in the snatch.
\nAbubakar, meanwhile, tested positive for the prohibited hormone and metabolic modulator tamoxifen metabolite during the Championships where he was 13th among 61 competitors in the 61kg class.
\nSharjeel, who competes in the 55kg class, and three others Ghulam Mustafa, Abdur Rehman and Farhan Amjad has refused to take their samples to an ITA team which raided the Railways Stadium in Lahore on November 10.
\nThe quartet had asked ITA investigators for their identities, which the latter refused to show and waited for an hour before putting that case into non-compliance.
\nIn a statement ITA said \u201cA joint ITA and World Anti-Doping Agency investigation, initiated on the basis of ITA intelligence, also resulted in the ITA asserting apparent Anti-Doping Rule Violations agains four Pakistani weightlifters under Article 2.3 of the IWF Anti-Doping Rules (Evading, Refusing or Failing to Submit to Sample Collection) for refusing to submit to sample collection during an attempted out-of-competition test conducted by the ITA in Pakistan on 10 November 2021.\u201d
\nFarhan is the son of Amjad Amin Butt, the PWF vice-president who was formerly secretary general of the country\u2019s weightlifting body. Waqas Akbar was their trainer at the Railways Stadium.
\nNone of the six weightlifters challenged the \u2018B\u2019 sample as time for that had elapsed.
\nThey also added \u201cAll sic athletes have been informed of the cases and have been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matters.\u201d
\nDuring the period of provisional suspension, the athletes cannot inter alia participate in any capacity in any competition or any other activity either at the international or national level organized by any signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code.
\n\u201cThe prosecution of the cases is also being handled entirely by the ITA. Given that the cases are underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceedings.\u201d
\nPWF\u2019s fate is due to be decided at the IWF\u2019s Executive Committee meeting slated for next month in Greece.
\nAny country with three or more doping offences within a year faces a ban of up to four years along with fine of up to $500,000.
\nThe members of the Pakistan team who have not been caught in doping offences are training at the camp in Lahore for the Commonwealth Games.
\nThey include Nooh Dastagir Butt in the superheavyweight category, Hanzala Dastagir Butt in the 109kg class and Haider Ali at 81kg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE The Pakistan Weightlifting Federation faces a lengthy ban from the International Weightlifting Federation after six of its weightlifters, including Talha, were provisionally suspended by the International Testing Agency over doping offences. Talha and two others, abubakar Gahni and Sharjeel but, were due to take part in this year\u2019s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. They are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-258303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n