The ITA asserts multiple Anti-Doping Rule Violations against Russian weightlifter Rodion Bochkov

The ITA reports that it has asserted ADRVs against Russian weightlifter Rodion Bochkov under Article 2.2 (Use or Attempted Use by an Athlete of a Prohibited Substance or a Prohibited Method) and Article 2.1 (Presence of a Prohibited Substance or its Metabolites or Markers) of the International Weightlifting Federation Anti-Doping Rules (IWF ADR).

The Article 2.2 assertion is based on investigations conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Intelligence and Investigation Department (WADA I&I) and by Professor Richard McLaren into allegations of systemic doping practices in Russian sport as well as Moscow Laboratory Information Management System (“LIMS”) data retrieved by WADA I&I over time. In particular, these investigations uncovered LIMS data as well as underlying analytical data pertaining to a sample provided by Mr Bochkov in 2012 and this evidence was provided by WADA I&I to the ITA in 2021 for further assessment¹.

Accordingly, the ITA conducted further investigation and target testing, including the collection of a sample during an out-of-competition testing mission on 6 September 2021. The analysis of the sample revealed an Adverse Analytical Finding (AAF) for the prohibited steroid dehydrochloromethyl-testosterone metabolite (DHCMT).

The athlete has been informed of the case and has been provisionally suspended until the resolution of the matter. He has the right to request the analysis of the B-sample.

Pursuant to the IWF’s delegation of its anti-doping program to the ITA, the prosecution of the case is being handled entirely by the ITA.

Given that the case is underway, there will be no further comments during the ongoing proceeding.

¹ For the sake of completeness, the re-analysis of the athlete’s sample collected in 2015 by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) also returned an AAF for DHCMT. The Disciplinary Anti-Doping Committee of RUSADA decided that no violation was committed with respect to the positive finding. The ITA understands that the case is currently under appeal by both WADA and RUSADA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.