Tatiana Kashirina’s biggest ever lifts by a woman weightlifter have been erased from the record books by a court ruling that disqualifies all her results in a four-year period.
The Russian super-heavyweight, who has been banned for eight years for a doping offence, loses three world titles, three European titles and a number of other victories achieved between 2013 and 2017.
Kashirina, winner of every international competition she entered from October 2012 to November 2018, made the all-time biggest lifts at the 2014 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Almaty in Kazakhstan – a snatch of 155 kilograms, a clean and jerk of 193kg and a total of 348kg.
The “biggest ever” lifts will now be lower, made by the Chinese Olympic champion, Li Wenwen, who will have a chance to better them when she lifts at the IWF World Championships next week.
The disqualifications were confirmed to insidethegames by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“All the competitive results obtained by Tatiana Kashirina from April 1, 2013 until June 19, 2017 were disqualified, with all the resulting consequences, including the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money,” a statement said.
CAS ruled on the case after appeals were lodged by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against a tribunal’s decision to clear Kashirina of any wrongdoing.
Kashirina was suspended for two years after testing positive in 2006, when she was 15.
A second offence became known during an investigation into historic malpractice at the Moscow Laboratory, and she was provisionally suspended in November 2020 for “use or attempted use of a prohibited substance or prohibited method”.
Eight months later, RUSADA’s Disciplinary Committee found there was no case to answer and cleared Kashirina, although it was too late for her to qualify for the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
The Disciplinary Committee is independent of RUSADA, which strongly disagreed with the decision to clear Kashirina and filed an appeal to CAS last September.
A few weeks later, WADA did the same and both appeals were upheld by CAS two weeks ago.
Kashirina’s eight-year suspension, the standard length for a second offence, began in the last week of August.
She will be 40 when it ends.
WADA’s investigation into the Moscow laboratory, known as Operations LIMS, has led to more than 200 doping charges being brought against athletes in a range of sports.
In a statement to insidethegames, it said, “WADA reviews every case to ensure it has been dealt with in line with the World Anti-Doping Code and if it is not, we reserve our right to take an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. –Insidethegames.biz
