Lausanne (Switzerland) (AFP)

Five Russian weightlifters, including a bronze medalist at the London 2012 Olympic Games, have been temporarily suspended on suspicion of doping based on data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said Tuesday.

Ruslan Albegov, 31, a London bronze medalist in excess of 105 kg and a two-time world champion in 2013 and 2014, has been temporarily suspended, as has the 2013 world champion under 63 kg, Tima Turieva.

Also concerned: David Bedzhanyan, 30, Vice-World Champion 2013 in under 105 kg, Oleg Chen, 30, double runner-up in 2011 and 2013 in under 69 kg and Egor Klimanov, 26, vice-president European champion 2019 in less than 69 kg.

The five Russians were suspended "on the basis of investigations by Professor McLaren and the Intelligence and Investigations Department of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) into the doping program in Russia," said the IWF.

These suspensions follow the analysis of samples collected in the former anti-doping laboratory of Moscow.

In early July, WADA reported that nearly 300 Russian athletes suspected of doping had been identified after the analysis of thousands of samples collected in the former Moscow anti-doping laboratory.

WADA had added that data from 43 of them had been sent to the relevant federations.

To date, only two federations have suspended athletes on the basis of these data, the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) and the IWF.

The IWF said it had provisionally suspended the five Russians because of the "seriousness of suspicions of anti-doping rule violations".

The federation also said that, in collaboration with the Lausanne-based International Testing Agency (ITA), "investigations are continuing which could lead to the discovery of new cases in the near future".

A time put under surveillance by the International Olympic Committee because of too many cases of doping, the IWF, which strengthened its anti-doping program, finally got the green light last March to be present at the Olympics of Paris-2024 .

At the beginning of July, WADA had also indicated that if the federations did not initiate any prosecution despite the data received, WADA reserves the right to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

© 2019 AFP