Indonesia gets weightlifting silver medal

Indonesia gets weightlifting silver medal

SYDNEY (Agencies): Indonesia picked up on Friday a
weightlifting silver medal after Bulgarian muscle woman Izabela
Dragneva was disqualified for drugs.

Dragneva, who competed in the women's 48kg division, and her
countryman Sevdalin Minchev, the bronze medalist in the 62kg
category, were stripped of their medals after traces of banned
diuretics were found in urine samples.

The disqualification of Dragneva moved American Tara Nott up
to the gold, Indonesia's Raema Lisa Rumbewas to silver and
another Indonesian, Sri Indriyani, to bronze.

Gennady Oleshchuk of Belarus was promoted to bronze from
fourth place in the men's 62kg.

"It was just starting to sink in that I won the silver, so
right now I'm kind of in shock," said Nott, who also becomes
America's first weightlifting gold medalist in 40 years.

The medals were presented by International Olympics Committee
(IOC) vice president Dick Pound at the Athletes Village on
Friday.

An Indonesian official, Indra Kartasasmita, said the
organizing committee provided Lisa's mother, Ida, with a pass to
the athletes village, which was valid only for two hours, upon
request of the Indonesian team.

Indriyani, promoted to bronze medal, told reporters that she
would heal her injury completely in her hometown Surakarta after
the Games.

"I prefer to heal the injury in my hometown, besides I want to
see parents before joining the training camp for the 2001 SEA
Games," the former junior champion said by phone.

Following the findings, Bulgaria's weightlifting team was
expelled from the Olympics. The International Weightlifting
Federation (IWF) slapped the ban on the Bulgarians under its
"three strikes and out rule", which allows for a national
association to be suspended if three lifters test positive within
12 months of each other.

On Wednesday, men's 56kg silver medalist Ivan Ivanov met the
same fate after also testing positive for furosemide, a steroid-
masking agent.

"The Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation is suspended forthwith
for a period of not less than 12 months pending an
investigation," the IWF said in a statement on Friday.

"All remaining lifters as well as officers from the Bulgarian
Weightlifting Federation will not be able to take part in the
Olympic Games."

IWF vice-president Sam Coffa said the governing body believed
the drugs had been taken by the lifters to lose weight.

"We have concluded that they took these drugs to lose weight
and nothing else. We tested them before the games and if they
were taking the diuretics to cover steroid use it would have
shown up," Coffa said at a press conference.

Under the IWF's current anti-doping policy a clause allowed
the payment of a US$50,000 fine to stay at the Games, invoked by
the Rumanian team earlier this week.

However IWF general-secretary Tamas Ajan told a press
conference that accepting a fine to allow the Bulgarians to
continue competing had not been an option.

"Absolutely not," he said when asked if the IWF had considered
allowing Bulgaria to pay the fine.

"We would not accept money. This is the Olympic Games ... it's
a completely different case to the Rumanians, which were pre-
Games tests."

Coffa said an example needed to be made of the banned team.

"This is a completely different atmosphere. These were Olympic
medalists -- surely they must be dealt with in a stronger way,"
he added.

In a further twist Friday, two Bulgarian-born weightlifters
due to represent Qatar at the Olympics withdrew from competition
citing health reason, officials said.

Salelem Nayef Badr formerly Petar Tanev, and Sulyan Abbas
Nader, formerly Andrey Ivanov, pulled out from Friday's men's
77kg category final complaining of a "virus," weightlifting
officials said.

The two men had been training with the team banned Bulgarian
team prior to the Games.

Meanwhile, China's Ding Meiyuan smashed three world records to
take Olympic gold in the superheavyweight category of the women's
weightlifting competition on Friday.

Agata Wrobel of Poland also broke world records in the snatch
and the clean-and-jerk in the over 75kg weight class only to see
Ding break them again within minutes.

Wrobel took silver while American Cheryl Haworth, who at
139.38kg became the heaviest woman ever to step onto the Olympic
weightlifting platform, took bronze.

Ding's success means all four members of the unstoppable
Chinese women's team will leave Sydney with a gold medal.