Tawa hopeful of getting athletes cleared of charges

Rio Olympic champions Sukanya Srisurat, left, and Sopita Tanasan.

The Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (Tawa) hopes its athletes would be cleared of doping charges so that they could compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Tawa last week announced that it would not send its athletes to compete at the Tokyo Games as well as other international events.

The self-imposed ban was issued after eight Thai athletes failed drug tests at the world championships in Turkmenistan in November.

"The Thai athletes will not participate in any international events from now on until the situation is resolved," said Tawa, which has set up a committee to look into the issue.

Tawa adviser Intarat Yodbangtoey told reporters yesterday the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) had asked the association to conclude its investigation and submit its report to the sport's governing body by Aug 1.

Gen Intarat, also an IWF vice president, said the probe was expected to be completed by next month.

He said if the IWF reached its conclusion in the next few months and found that the Thai weightlifters were innocent then they would get a chance to compete at Tokyo 2020.

"There would still be enough time for them to collect points in the qualifying events for the 2020 Olympics," he said. "But if the procedure takes too long, we would not have a chance to compete in Tokyo."

Among the eight are 2016 Rio Olympic champions Sukanya Srisurat and Sopita Tanasan, Duanganksnorn Chaidee, Thunya Sukcharoen and Chitchanok Pulsabsakul.

Sukanya and Chitchanok had also tested positive in 2011 and suspended for two years.

Intarat reiterated that all athletes had undergone tests in Thailand before going to Turkmenistan and the Thai anti-doping agency did not find traces of banned substances.

Thailand have claimed nine Olympic gold medals, five of them in weightlifting.