Four Kazakh weightlifters who won gold at London 2012 could lose medals due to doping

FOUR weightlifters who won gold at London 2012 face losing their medals after their doping samples were retested.

The quartet of Kazakhs included men’s 94kg champion Ilya Ilyin, women’s gold medalists Zulfiya Chinshanlo, Maiya Maneza and Svetlana Podobedova.

If all four are disqualified then their country would drop from 12th to 23rd in the medal standings from the London Games.

The International Weightlifting Federation said the four athletes were among ten from five ex-Soviet countries whose samples tested positive for banned substances in retesting carried out by the International Olympic Committee.

Chinshanlo won gold in the 53kg class, Maneza in the 63kg and Podobedova in the 75kg category.

Russian male weightlifter Apti Aukhadov, who won silver at 85kg also tested positive for doping, along with Ukraine’s bronze medallist Yuliya Kalina from the 58kg group and Belarusian Marina Shkermankova, who won bronze in the 69kg class.

In April Kazakh hurdler Anastasia Soprunova was slapped with a four-year doping ban and stripped of her gold medal from the Asian indoor championships.