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Azerbaijani national weightlifting team is not allowed to participate in the next European Championship because of doping scandal that involves the sportsmen representing Azerbaijan. According to Azerbaijani news agency APA, former head coach of Azerbaijani team Vakhid Nazarov said about this.

According to him, this has happened due to the fact that 5 athletes representing Azerbaijan who won medals at last year’s continental championship in Antalia are involved in doping scandal.

The usage of banned drugs by Azerbaijani sportsmen who are already deprived of their awards has led to the removal of national team of Azerbaijan from the competition.

That is why the Championship of Europe from 3rd to 13th of April in Telaviv (Israel) will be held without Azerbaijan. The official website of the tournament has already placed the list of all participants but out of 253 sportsmen there is no athlete representing Azerbaijan.

Nazarov who will represent Azerbaijan in the competition as an arbiter noted that as long as doping scandal is not solved national team of Azerbaijan will be suspended from participation in any international competition. Besides, it is expected that the Weightlifting Federation of Azerbaijan will be fined by 500 thousand EURO, while Azerbaijani sportsmen will be disqualified for a period of 2 to 4 years.

As the news agency notes those sportsmen that represented Azerbaijan in European Championship in Antalia, Valentin Khristov (62kg) and Intigam Zairov (94kg) won the gold medal, Sardar Hasanov (69 kg ) and Silvia Angelova (48 kg) -silver , Zulfyugar Suleymanov (62 kg) -bronze. However, in the website of International Weightlifting Federation it is noted that all of them are deprived of medals and will be disqualified.