AAP NEWSFEED (Australia)
August 20, 2004, Friday 8:24 AM Eastern Time

Wgt: Chakhoyan looks for gold in tarnished sport

By Glenn Cullen

Golden moments in Australian weightlifting have been few of late but
there could be one tomorrow for Sergo Chakhoyan.

The Armenian-born weightlifter is in contention for the gold medal in
the 85kg class at the Games, along with hometown favourite and
three-time gold medallist Pyrros Dimas, China’s Aijan Yuan and Turk
Izzet Ince.

World weightlifting has already had its share of drugs scandals at
this Olympics, with seven international competitors testing positive
in out of competition tests before they had a chance to lift.

While distanced from drugs controversies here so far, the Australians
have not had a good record in the last six months.

Two positive tests to fringe national squad members were followed by
the debacle involving women’s lifter Caroline Pileggi who was kicked
off the team for failing to undergo a drugs test while training in
Fiji.

In between time there were questions raised about Chakhoyan, who
tested positive to stanozolol and served a two year ban that finished
in 2003.

The Australian Olympic Committee complained it could not find the
Armenian-based athlete for more than three months.

He was drug tested, his result negative.

Of more immediate concern tomorrow may be Chakhoyan’s weight, which
appears to have dropped in the competition lead-up.

Sam Coffa, head of the Australian Weightlifting Federation, said it
wasn’t ideal.

“I had heard he was losing a little bit of bodyweight and that’s
always a concern,” he said.

“You can’t go into the competition having lost too much bodyweight.

Coffa, who is also vice president of the International Weightlifing
Federation and is officiating here, said he couldn’t say why positive
tests from lifters couldn’t be confirmed before the Games to avoid
the embarrassment here.

“I don’t know I am not really competent to answer those questions.
There are medical and scientific reasons why this can’t be done and
there’s all the logistics,” he said.

“But I am clearly a technical man so I don’t interfere with those
sorts of things.”