Today weightlifters are beginning to come to the Dominican Republic - two days later the World Cup starts here. The tournament is the first opportunity to gain qualification points for participation in the 2008 Olympics. The Russian team plans to take a serious step to get the maximum quota.
The Olympic prospect is very attractive for weightlifters. Two days before the start of the competition, 630 athletes from 71 countries registered in the Dominican Republic. It is unlikely that Leonel Fernandez, president of the Federation of the Dominican Republic, where there are almost half as many inhabitants as in 10 millionth Moscow, expected such an interest.
However, representatives of one country will certainly not appear here - the Iranian team is completely excluded from the competition. The reason for this is the positive doping tests of nine weightlifters. Only two people remained clean before the law. One of them was the two-time Olympic champion in the heavyweight category Hossein Rezazade. At the last World Cup, an Iranian crossed the road in the fight for “gold” to Russian Evgeny Chigishev. The absence of a serious competitor increases the chances of representatives of other countries. True, not so significant. At the Doha Championship in 2005, the Iranian national team was marked with only one award - the victory of Rezazade.
Under current rules, the International Weightlifting Federation is authorized to exclude a team for two years from any competition. In a word, apply the measure that the Russian team managed to escape by a miracle. In July, two positive doping tests by Dmitry Berestov and Evgeny Pisarev became known. The presence of another “plus” would deprive the Russian team of Olympic prospects. This forced Russian specialists to take our team under close control. According to Gazeta, Yury Teryaev, general secretary of the Russian Weightlifting Federation, the testing was strengthened and carried out using new technology that processes analyzes more thoroughly. As a result, no complaints to any athlete arose.
Meanwhile, the congress of the international federation, scheduled for the days of the World Cup in the Dominican Republic, plans to double the sentence for the use of prohibited substances. If now, after incrimination for the first time, an athlete is suspended for two years, then after a decision by Congress he can be suspended for four. It is likely that, according to the results of the congress, the budget for combating "chemistry" will be increased.
At the last World Cup, the Russian team looked very convincing: two “gold”, four “silver”, two “bronze”. Moreover, the male and female teams distinguished themselves in equal shares, having four medalists. This time the composition has undergone changes. We will not see Evgeny Chigishev, Natalia Zabolotnaya and Marina Shainova. “Of these three losses, only one was forced. Yevgeny Chigishev in training went to a record weight of 255 kg and could not take it - he injured his shoulder,” said Yury Teryaev. “Natalya Zabolotnaya won the European Championship this year and then made the planned operation. We also decided to save Marina Shainova: she is only 20 years old and she has already received the appropriate age load by speaking at the Junior World Championship and winning the European Championship among adults. "
In the women's team, another change occurred: the Olympic medalist Zarema Kasaev, by the decision of coach Soltan Karakotov, was transferred from the category up to 69 kg to the category up to 75 kg. This is done in the interests of the team - it is assumed that the athlete will help to score the necessary team points. The points scored by athletes will be combined with the results of the next World Cup in 2007. The top nine teams will receive the maximum quota at the Beijing Olympics.
Team composition:
Men: Vladislav Lukanin, Oleg Perepechonov (77 kg), Aslanbek Ediev (85 kg), Mukhamed Sazayev (94 kg), Dmitry Lapikov, Dmitry Klokov (105 kg)
Women: Svetlana Ulyanova (48 kg), Svetlana Tsarukaeva (58 kg), Svetlana Shimkova (63 kg), Tatyana Matveeva (69 kg), Zarema Kasaeva, Nadezhda Evstyukhina (75 kg)
Tatyana Milevskaya