Weightlifter Khadjimurat Akkaev rejects accusations of doping

Khadjimurat Akkaev, a native of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), who won bronze at the 2008 Olympics, has stated that the results of cross-checking his doping assay, which revealed the presence of a prohibited substance in his body, are false.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 24, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced that Akkaev's doping test at the Beijing Olympics was positive.

In his turn, Khadjimurat Akkaev has expressed confidence that his doping test could not be positive.

"The substance they allegedly found in my body, the dehydrochloric methyltestosterone, was then even unknown in our country; we have never heard of it," said the athlete, adding that opening test tubes without participation of the Russian National Olympic Committee (NOC) and athletes themselves is a violation of their rights.

"How do we know, in which basement they were opened, and what they added there," said Akkaev, claiming that should Russian weightlifters be deprived of their medals, the medals will go to the athletes, whose final doping tests are not in the database at all. In his opinion, it is another evidence that the IWF's decision is unfair.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.