Sydney morning herald, Australia
July 7 2004

Weightlifting hit by new doping claims

New doping allegations threaten to disrupt Australian weightlifting
on the eve of the Athens Olympics.

The Australian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) has launched an
investigation after being told by the Australian Sports Drug Agency
(ASDA) Tuesday that an unnamed lifter had refused to take a drug
test.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is expected to hear the case
next week.

Australia’s Olympic weightlifting team is due to be named on Friday.

Caroline Pileggi and Armenian-born Sergo Chakhoyan are expected to be
named as the only two weightlifters on the Australian team.

“There is an incident that is causing us some concern which is being
looked at right now,” said AWF president Sam Coffa, who would only
identify the athlete as being an AWF member.

The average penalty for such an offence is a two-year ban.

The Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Sports Commission
are monitoring the situation and have offered to help the federation
present its case against the athlete, who is contesting the charge.

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Coffa said that once the investigation was complete, the findings
would be made public, regardless of whether the athlete in question
was guilty or not.

“Innuendos and rumours have a life of their own and they develop
legs. Somebody will say something and somebody will say something
else, and I believe it’s unhealthy,” Coffa said. “If there is a
doping case we immediately make a public statement and if it’s the
other way around and someone has been wrongly accused we will say
that too.”

Caroline Pileggi (+75kg) is expected to be the sole Australian
women’s representative and has an outside chance of winning an
Olympic medal.

The 25-year-old, who claimed gold when women debuted in the sport at
the Commonwealth Games in 2002, has overcome shoulder problems which
kept her out of last year’s world championships.

She competed at the Oceania championships in Fiji in May and the
selection trials two weeks ago in Melbourne.

Armenian-born Sergo Chakhoyan (85kg) missed those events to train in
the country of his birth.

He looms as the man to claim Australia’s second ever Olympic gold
medal, 20 years after Port Lincoln fisherman Dean Lukin made the
breakthrough.

Chakhoyan was suspended in 2001 for two years for using steroids.

The latest allegations involving Australian weightlifting come after
Anthony Martin last month accepted a two-year ban for testing
positive to banned substances.

Commonwealth Games bronze medal winner Seen Lee will appeal a
two-year ban for testing positive in May to the diuretic furosemide.