Weightlifting: Armneia’s Simon Martirosyan to replace Olympic silver with gold

Armenian weightlifting champion Simon Martosyan, who won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics, will have his medal replaced with gold based on a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

At a news conference on Wednesday, the national team’s head coach, Pashik Alaveerdyan, said the regulatory body detailed the recently launched procedure in an official notice sent to him.

It comes after Uzbekisan’s Ruslan Nurudinov of (w/c -105kg) tested positive for drugs.

In May 2019, the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS AD) found the sportsman guilty of using dopings during the 2012 London Olympics.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced its decision to ban Nurudinov from sports based on the results of a repeaed testing back in December. His results were declared null and void after the Federation submitted the case to CAS in April, highlighting a breach of anti-doping rules. The case was later resubmited to IWF for further studies.

Martirosyan, who was named Armenia's first medal winner at the Rio Olympics, was aged only 19 at the time.