Tokyo Olympics 2020: Romanian weightlifters to miss Games after federation receives one-year doping ban

Paris: Romanian weightlifters will be absent from the Tokyo Olympics after the country's federation received a one-year ban from the sport's governing body for "numerous anti-doping rule violations".

The ban is based on "five ADRVs (violations) that were committed in 2012 by five different athletes", the International Weightlifting Federation said in a statement Thursday.

"The five ADRVs were for the presence of anabolic steroids detected in the athletes' samples."

Four of the offences were committed by Florin Croitoru, Gabriel Sincraian, Razvan Martin and Roxana Cocos at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The sanction can be appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The IWF has already suspended three other federations for similar reasons: Thailand, Egypt and Malaysia.