Russian wrestler to move court after IOC strips him of Olympic silver

Russian wrestler Khasan Baroev, a gold medallist at the 2004 Olympic Games, has said that he decided to petition against the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to strip him of his silver medal from the 2008 Beijing Games.

On Thursday, the IOC had issued an official statement saying it disqualified Khasan Baroev from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in which he took silver in the men's 120kg Greco-Roman wrestling event, after reanalysis of his samples from the Olympics resulted in a positive test for prohibited turinabol.

Shortly after that Baroev said that he would not go to court.

"I have changed my mind, I will fight for myself and for my medal, and I will go to court," he told Tass.

Three more Russian athletes are on the IOC list. Weightlifters Khadzhimurat Akkaev and Dmitry Lapikov have been stripped of bronze medals for testing positive for the prohibited substance dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (turinabol).

The IOC has also disqualified Elena Slesarenko, who finished fourth in the women's high jump at the Beijing Olympics.

--IANS

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