Azerbaijan to appeal loss of Olympic weightlifting spots
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) Azerbaijan has said it plans to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being stripped of two Olympic weightlifting spots over doping.
The International Weightlifting Federation took two Olympic quota places from Azerbaijan last month after six of its team failed drug tests at last year's world championships.
The Azerbaijan Weightlifting Federation says in a statement it will work with foreign lawyers to plan an appeal to CAS, and believes it can achieve ''a positive result at the international tribunal.''
In a separate case, two Azeri weightlifters face bans after their samples from previous Olympics were retested and found to contain steroids.
They are reigning world champion Boyanka Kostova and veteran competitor Intigam Zairov, who is already banned until 2023 for a doping offense at the 2015 worlds.
