Russia drops weightlifting coaches after doping case

MOSCOW — Russia has suspended its top men's and women's weightlifting coaches after world champion Alexei Lovchev and three other Russian lifters failed drug tests. Lovchev won the men's heavyweight world title in Houston in November with a world record of 475 kilograms from two lifts, but was suspended on Dec. 24 after testing positive for the banned growth hormone ipamorelin. Neither men's coach Alexander Venkov nor women's coach Alexander Vidov were included on a list of team staff for the 2016 season published Thursday by the Russian Sports Ministry. Their absence leaves Russia's weightlifting team, one of the world's strongest, leaderless ahead of the Olympics in August. Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the R-Sport agency that the two coaches could be reinstated following an investigation into Lovchev's positive test, but "someone must take responsibility." Mutko has previously maintained that Lovchev's positive test was caused by a medication he was taking legally. Besides Lovchev, his Russian teammates Alexei Kosov, Olga Zubova and Olga Afanasyeva were also suspended on suspicion of steroid use following drug tests conducted at the world championships in the United States. Weightlifting great dies Soviet weightlifting great Leonid Zhabotinsky, who won two Olympic gold medals and set multiple world records, has died at the age of 77 following a long illness. The Ukrainian Weightlifting Federation said Zhabotinsky died Wednesday night, and paid tribute to him as an "outstanding Ukrainian athlete." Federation general secretary Boris Lobko told the Associated Press that Zhabotinsky was ill for the past year and a half. Zhabotinsky won the super heavyweight class at the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and was known for a light-hearted approach to the sport, in contrast to his longtime Soviet rival Yuri Vlasov, the 1960 gold medalist, who had a reputation as an intellectual. At the 1964 Games, Zhabotinsky tricked defending champ Vlasov into believing he couldn't beat Vlasov, when he failed his second clean and jerk. But after Vlasov finished and led the competition, Zhabotinsky used his last clean and jerk to hoist a world record and win the gold. Zhabotinsky was the Soviet flagbearer in Mexico City, where he won the gold medal again with ease. As a leading Soviet athlete, Zhabotinsky's death brought tributes from Russia and Ukraine, where he was born and lived in later life. Both countries' sports ministries issued statements of tribute.